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.,UNITISd STATES OF AMERICA. 



THE LEARNED WORLD. 



ANICETUS 



AUTHOR OF "our MODERN ATHENS; OR, WHO 19 FIRST?" 
"the cannonade,'' «'THB PENNIMANS," &C. 



Lj miM^ 




"Knowledge is Power." 




BOSTON: 
W. H. PIPER AND COMPANY, 

133 Washington Street. 
1864. 






Entered according to the Act of Congress in the year 1864 by 
w. A. CLARK, 

in the Clerk's office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. 



2 -7 ; ■') (, 



DEDICATION. 



TO MY MOTHER, 

WnOSE HONORED DUST LIES INfl'HE CHEERFUL PRECINCTS OF 

MOUNT AUBURN, WHOSE SOUL IS WITH JESUS, AMID 

THOSE MANSIONS HE PROMISED TO PREPARE FOR THOSE WHO 

PUT THEIR TRUST IN HIM ; 

TO HER, THE FRIEND OF MY YOUTH, 

WHOSE WELL CULTIVATED AFFECTIONS WERE IN 

HARMONY WITH HER WELL-BALANCED MIND, WHOSE WARM 

AND GENEROUS SYMPATHIES WERE EVER TRUE TO DUTY, 

I DEDICATE THESE VERSES, 

AS AN HUMBLE TRIBUTE TO HER MEMORY, 

WHICH IS AMONG THE HAPPIEST 

THOUGHTS OF MY LIFE. 



PREFACE. 



The author of this work, in presenting it to the 
public, does not overlook the fact that it is not 
without its full share of imperfections ; but he is 
not without the hope, that a generous public will 
find in its pages enough of merit, to award to his 
labor a fair share of encouragement. 

None save those who are conversant with the 
difficult art of versification, can realize the obsta^ 
cles in the way of effecting a perfect work of this 
nature, with which the most exacting critic shall 
be satisfied. To make music of every verse that 
is penned, of a poem of such magnitude as this, is 
not within the compass of any other than the most 
extraordinary genius — and we do not pretend to 
be uncommonly endowed. 

If the object of a poem is noble, and its scope in 
harmony with its design, its execution of average 
1* [51 



TI PREFACE. 



ability, it seems to him that in asking public sup- 
port for the same, he is not fairly open to the charge 
of presumption. Did he for one moment suppose 
such a charge could honestly be made, he would 
shrink from publication. The Poem was read to 
several persons of excellent culture and judgment, 
who freely tendered the opinion that it was worthy 
of the press ; and, encouraged by their commenda- 
tion, he determined to act in accordance with it. 
Tt is not attempted to give every science in detail, 
but the leading, salient points, so that whoever 
may honor the work with a reading, will have 
presented to their mind a condensed panorama of 
human thought and inquiry ; and can diverge from 
it in any direction their several tastes may prompt, 
for the gratification of whatever curiosity may 
move them to study. Our Heavenly Father has 
endowed us with a love of knowledge, but com- 
paratively few are gifted with the power of ac- 
quiring, and retaining it ; and it was with a view 
to the stimulation and gratification of this love, 
that we conceived the idea of versifying the sci- 
ences, whereby many a one might be induced to 



PKEFACE. Til 

^nder upon them, and to better know tlieir maker, 
who would, otherwise, never think of the beautiful 
laws by which he governs all his creation. The 
utmost that man can learn of God through Nature 
is exceedingly hmited, yet full enrugh to induce 
him to study, if he has a true passion for knowl- 
edge. The investigation into Nature can harm no 
mind rightly disposed, for though it may humble 
us to find ourselves baffled in the search for second 
causes, yet, if we receive this check with due hu- 
mility, we shall be only the more impressed with 
the splendor of Jehovah's power, and the more 
exult in what may be unfolded to us of knowledge 
in the spirit world. The great error that very 
many make in seeking to know, is this ; they are 
ambitious to acquire what is denied — they are 
altogether too grasping ; they will not be satisfied 
with the evidence of design, and consequently 
•with the moral certainty of a designer ; but they 
seek to know the precise motives of these designs — 
this vast incomprehensible plan. No one who stud- 
ies with any such purpose will labor to any profit, 
but will end not only in doubting the being of a 



VIIT PBEFACE. 

God, but In tlie immortality of their own soul# 
We can determine nothing as to the purposes of 
God, but we can see much which should determine 
our belief in the existence of a supreme intelli- 
gence, that should ever humbly bend us to his 
secrecy ; for he is secret, and in this is his glory ! 
Nor do we 'think that the study of Nature can in any 
degree detract from our faith as Christians — if we 
study with the aforesaid humility. The religion 
of Christ and of Nature are one — viz: the love 
of God! There are those who through Nature 
can come to a perfect love of God — and again 
there are those who can only through the life of 
Christ, be reconciled to him. Love is the great 
fundamental principle of all creation, and Christ 
came to manifest it in the flesh, to those who could 
not realize it, without a verbal pledge. Whatever 
tends to excite in us this love of God, and to chast- 
en our feelings and desires, is a positive good ; and 
if such is the fruit of study, no one can so employ 
their time to disadvantage in studious occupa- 
tions. We have, it Is true, alluded to the pursuit 
of learning, in terms of condemnation ; but It Is 



PRKFACE. IX 

only where knowledge is deified and God forgot- 
ten. There are many who for the sake of science, 
are so buried among books, that they neglect social 
duties, and foster an intellectual pride, which is as 
pitiful as it is irreligious ! It is such as these to 
whom we have alluded in our introduction. We 
have said, and we say again, " throw books away," 
if study^ good nature, health and happiness, cannot 
go hand and hand together. If a cold, malicious, 
demoniacal infidelity, is to usurp in the hearts of 
mankind the place of Christianity, we think learn- 
ing an unmitigated curse, and that the indiscrim- 
inate study of books is the suggestion of the prin- 
ciple of evil, be it in what tangible form it may. 
The death of Hugh Miller, of Chatterton, of Poe, 
and a host of others, remarkable for their literary 
genius and love of learning, was the result of an 
abuse of their powers ! and this is what we wish 
to be understood as condemning. 

" Man has faculties fitted to observe phenomena ,^ 
and the relations subsisting between them ; but na-^ 
ture has denied him powers fitted to discover, as a 
matter of direct perception, either the beginning,. 



PEEFACE. 



or the end, or the essence, of any tiling under the 
sun ! " 

We hardly think any one will seriously call in 
question the truth of these remarks ; nor have we 
entered upon this work with any wish of exciting 
that foolish curiosity leading to studies which are 
nothing more than pompous ideologies, oppressing 
the mind Avith notions without any bearing upon 
or applicability whatever to the great industrial in- 
terests of this world, which, however gross they 
may be to minds of a delicate and highly imagin- 
ative cast, are nevertheless the great supports of 
life and society, and must be borne with patiently, 
and with that heroic trust in another and a better 
world, where all our deep pantings for lofty truth 
and occupations may be fully realized. 

It may be objected that the verse is too bald and 
unmusical. "Goldsmith's Deserted Villag^e" has 
but one really striking figure ; and both Southey 
and Byron have said, because verse is not of the 
very best kind it is not therefore to be condemned ' 
The rule, that the sound must reflect the sense, no 



PKEFACE. XI 



one poet has or can invariably observe until lan- 
guage is perfected ! 

" The Learned World " deals with subjects which 
do not i-eadily, if at all, admit of the application 
of these rules, as any one may see who will ex- 
amine d'aik's remarks upon the attempts of Dar- 
win to make poetry of science! Anicetus has 
been warned by such facts ; and has sought merely 
to simplify in verse the leading ideas or thoughts 
of science, reconciling them to Revealed Religion ! 

By adopting a more studied, classical, recondite, 
dreamy, and mystified style, he would have given, 
no doubt, increased pleasure to the more refined 
literary taste ; but his work is designed for the 
general reader; and this style was chosen as the 
best for conveying the ideas he has expressed easily 
to their minds ; but, whilst his style is thus simpli- 
fied and unadorned, he trusts that even the most fas- 
tidious literary critic will not have reason to think 
it vulgar ; and that, if it has not attraction enough 
for his or her perusal, it may be thought worthy of 
being purchased for the study of those Avho could 
not be induced to read Tennyson, and poets of that 



XII PEEFACE. 

extreme and polished school, but who would be 
interested in the Avanderings through the circle of 
science of an earnest inquirer for the truth, who, 
spurning the superficial life of fashion, resolves to 
go to the basis of all knowledge for the ground- 
work of his aspiring soul. 

If any one is disposed to do, or icill do the work 
better than he is doing it, this post of honor and 
no inconsiderable labor he will freely resign to 
that one, pleased to know that the work is to be 
better done. 

It is asked that the verse may be fairly judged as 
a whole, and not condemned for parts. To the 
friends of Science, especially, the author looks for 
patronage and the circulation of his work. He 
is not aware that any class of schoolmen but the 
clergy will be likely to take offence at the man- 
ner in which he has disposed of Theology ; and 
the more liberal-minded of these he feels persuaded 
will not be inimical. If it should be thought that, 
though the work is well intended, it is wanting in 
that genius which is expected, nay, demanded by 
the readers of verse, he would say, in reply to this 



PREFACE. XIII 

objection, by giving circulation to the work the 
sooner will the coming man be evoked, who, fired 
with indignant scorn of Anicetus' attempt at " those 
labors which it is the peculiar office of the gods to 
do," will take pen in hand to ravish the ears of 
the patrons of verse with the exquisite melody of 
his muse, to the shame and confusion of Anicetus. 

But Anicetus, so far from being confused and 
ashamed, would be most gratified ; since, being 
the agent in the appearance of so great a wonder 
as a poet capable of doing this work satisfactorily 
to the ear and the taste of lovers of art, his life 
would not seem to him in vain. 

We desire here to quote from a poem on ^^ Den- 
talogia" published some years ago by Peabody & 
Co., of New York, Solyman Brown, author. The 
poem embraces some of the more general and pop- 
ular views of that valuable art, says the poet, who 
declares, — 

" For well I know 'tis difficult to chime, 
The laws of science with the rules of rhyme." 

We quote from this poem, because Mr. Family, 
in whose honor it was written, says, on receiving 
it from the author in token of his friendship, he 



XIV PREFACE. 

submitted the verse to rigid criticism at tlie hands 
of two gentlemen of New York, distinguished for 
their fine taste in Literature, and celebrated as 
Poets and Authors! ! 

"We wish the readers of " The Learned World " 
who are disposed to be hypercritical, to bear in 
mind what was thought by two such leading poets 
and authors to be "worthy publication." 



' With skill, 



The practised dental surgeon learns to fill 

Each morbid cavity, by caries made, 

With pliant gold ; — when thus the parts decayed 

Are well supplied, corrosion, forced to yield, 

To conquering' art the long contested field, 

Resigns its victim to the smiles of peace, 

And all decay and irritation cease. 

Yet oft through ignorance or negligence, — 

'Twcro hard to say through lack of common sense, — 

The fatal spoiler works his secret way, 

AVith noiseless industry from day to day, 

All undisturbed, till, lo, the work is done. 

That leaves to art new conquests to be won. 

'Tis thus the solid teeth from year to year 

By folly or misfortune disappear." 

This is a fair sample of the verse : there are few 
lines of any more beauty or euphony. And as to 
the sound reflecting the sense, the idea appears to 
be wholly ignored by the poet ; he attemj^ts it in 
no j^articular. 

In " the Hour at Will " by the unfortunate Fair- 



PREFACE. XV 

field, there are the following lines. It is one of the 
most beautiful poems in the English language, and 
is poetry, all must admit. 

But what person or persons can carry this mind, 
and heart, and utterance, into such matters as are 
embraced by " The Learned World " ? 

" With feelings purified and sense refined, 
And ttie veiled glories of a mighty mind, 
' The bard goes forth, from solitude sublime, 

To meet and grapple with a world of crime j 
Like a bright Seraph in some distant star 
To feel his spirit with hip fate at war ; 
To know his greatness, and to bear the scorn 
Of the miscreant menials on the dung-hill born ; 
To walk abroad, with radiant genius crowned, 
While crowded solitude hangs coldly round. 
And seek once more the muse's lonely room. 
And sigh to sink to slumber in the tomb ! 
Such is, hath been, will be the doom of minds 
That cast their glories in the world's vain winds ! " 

It is a mistaken idea, with many thinkers, that 
science cannot he ipopularizcd. There needs but a 
skilful presentation of it upon the plan in question 
to imbue all well-ordered minds with correct no- 
tions of it, and an ambition to conform theu* way 
of Kfe and thought to it; for there is no real hap- 
piness which has not for its basis mathematical 
precision I True hnowledge dignifies the character 
and enables its possessor to look with defiant scorn 



XVI PKEFACE. 

upon the popular falsehoods of life, as well as the 
stabs of fortune ; and thus a man secures compara- 
tive peace in a world of chaos and contention. He 
may be poor, and neglected, and despised, yet envied 
for that complacency which the worldly and thought- 
less (who would have him even as they are) cannot 
understand ! Still, his poverty is no discomfort, 
since his visions of God are sublime ! — not easily 
to be obtained on the Rialtos of the world. To 
such a mind, of what moment is wealth obtained 
by the sacrifice of morals, of learning, and of 
health ? Thus tainted, its power is not desirable ; 
its influence is positively had! — treasured with fear 
and trembling too often, and parted with upon 
business principles, generally, which have no ele- 
ment of Christianity ; nothing but the hard and 
selfish genius of Blackstone, or of Coke ! 

We would here, in conclusion, remark that the 
sprite in the section on Theology is the intuition of 
man personified, from whence we derive our most 
cherished thoughts ; and the reader will please also 
understand that in Zoology, knowledge is person- 
ified as a charming maiden ! 



PKEFACE. 



We propose, in the event of meeting witli the 
necessary encouragement, to go through with the 
entire circle of the sciences, taking Sir Truth 
along with us, whose enquiring mind seeks in each 
department of knowledge, the principles upon 
which that knowledge is based. After he has 
made the round, we shall illustrate through him 
the utter inability of learning to satisfy the think- 
ing soul : we shall overwhelm him with mental 
disgust and despair, from which condition he is 
aroused by his guardian spirit, Martha^ who re- 
appears, as insanity is about to seize upon him, and 
by her pure influence brings him to a realization 
of his future home with her in a sphere of being, 
where truth is better understood, and the nature 
of God is more apparent through the wonderfil 
creations of His genius. We are to portray his 
death, happy as a gentle slumber, and the passage 
of his spirit with Martha, to the regions of the 
blessed. V 



THE LEARNED WORLD. 



O Natttre ! whose Ely6i<»ii scenes disclose. 
His bright perfections at whose word they rose, 
KkkI to that power who formed thee and sustains, 
Be thou the great inspirer of my strains. 
Still, as I torueh the Lyre, do thou expuDd 
Thy genuine charms and guide an artless hand. 
That I may catch a fire but rarely known, 
Give UFeful light, though I should miss renoivn. 
And poring on the page whose every line, 
Bears proof of an intelligence divine, 
May feel a heart enriched by what it pays, 
That builds its glory on its maker's praise. 

COWPEE. 



Aid me, Parnassus ! while I now pursue^ 

The paths of learning, and the scholar view; 

Turn o'er each page, each thought instructive glean, 

Note Learning's grace, its dogged silent mien : 
1 



a THE LEARNED WORLD. 

As we are just, so shall we be severe, 
Nor spare the charlatan, nor dunce's tear ; 
With eye impartial shall the field survey, 
Where genius toils, or dulness leads the way. 
We '11 point to little men, so too to great, 
We '11 prove that greatness is a mean estate ; 
We'll teach our fellow-man how false the pride, 
Which worships heroes — lesser worth derides : 
The poet, hero, stripped of all their arts. 
Are only men of smallest, meanest parts ; 
Base envy, jealousy, and hate combine 
To sap the heart, and foul the lordly mind ! 
Enwrapped in icy thought of self alone, 
Assail it e'er, and mark the demon foam : 
Within the prison, where in chains doth lay. 
Some hapless wretch who missed of virtue's way, 



THE XEAENED WOHLD. li 

Is oft more honor and a gentler heart, 

Than haughty genius knoweth in his art. 

The learned world, with all its pride and hate, 

Its intellectual mummery and state. 

Its poets, painters, sculptors, sages sleek, 

In vain delusions, vainest honors seek : 

Nor shall we spare these mounds of holy flesh, 

But backward hurl them to their native plesh ! • 

First, ere we onward plod our lengthy way, 

Learping's fair fields to traverse and survey, 

" What is the soul," 'tis asked ; " what truth and 

God r " 
A learned noodle wisely looks and nods ; 
As though to him 'twas clearer than the day. 
The peerless crystal, or the diamond's ray : 



4 THE LEAENED WORLD. 

His spectacles are wiped with solemn care, 

But not more solemn than his astute air ; 

He looks at ignorance and mildly says, 

" The paths of knowledge are most devious ways : " 

Ambitious folly sighs, and with a stare. 

Appears to th' sage " the picture of despair : '" 

" Oh, sir, of God I ask," exclaimed the fool, 

As yet a boy in life's too earnest school : 

" Why, friend, that only you should ask of God," 

Rejoined the sage, " all tremble at His nod ; 

But would you see Him, in the human form, , 

His spirit most his handiwork adorn : 

Seek humbly, and you shall in time attain. 

To know Jehovah and to merit fame ! 

But first his favor should enwreath your head. 

Ere you should ask to learning's walks be led : 



THE LEARNED WOELD. 

Since GJod then is but God, and truth but truth, 

The soul a principle pervading youth. 

And age alike, and death an end unknown, 

O, check thy pride, thy weakness freely own : " 

Sir Truth (for such was ignorance's pleasing name), 

By wisdom urged to astute wisdom came, 

"Who had by heart the whole of ancient lore. 

Within the Persian, China, Hindoo shore ; 

The Greek and Hebrew, and the Sanscrit too, 

Are all familiar to this scholar's view ; 

Within his mind are stored unnumbered facts, 

For which he moused thro' dark and devious tracks, 

Thro' tomes besmutted by the lapse of years. 

By trembling fingers searched, in hopes and fears. 

Yet knew no more than all may know of God, 

Who 5e/f-examines and surveys the sod, 
1* 



6 THE LEAENED WOULD. 

Looks thro' the forms of all created things, 
And soars with fancy on her sweeping wings. 
Sir Truth supposed an A. M., LL. D., 
Could solve with ease mysterious Deity : 
Of Greek and Latin he e'er stood in awe ; 
Unlearned in these he deemed himself most poor ; 
But as he noted keenly learning's words, 
He thought of parrots, and of mocking-birds, 
And queried if a man might not acquire, 
Essential truth without a Greek attire, 
Or Latin tongue, to grace his native wit. 
To which ' the English is by no means jit ! ' 
He smiled, and smiled again at pompous lore, 
And probed pretension to its very core ; 
Discerned beneath the spectacles afool, 
Whose pride, uneasy, sought uneasy rule : 



THE LEARNED WOULD. 

Thought he, " if such is wisdom's favored class, 

I'll sum the whole in brief — egregious ass ! 

Bombastic Nimrod with his French and Greek, 

Though filled with signs, in common sense is weak ! 

He's read Thucydides in Greek, Racine 

In Gallic, and mayhap, Italian fine ; 

In Portuguese he reads the pleasant verse. 

Which noble Camoens hath so oft rehearsed ; 

Arabic knows, and Hebrew freely speaks. 

The Chinese, too, in measured tones he squeaks ; 

Yet is he but a fool with all his lore, 

Though rich in language, may in truth be poor ; 

And poor he was in all that makes a man, 

A noble heart, to govern and to plan I 

A mind where passion yields to virtue's sway, 

Nor plots misdeeds when kneeling low to pray ! 



« THE liEAKNED WOELD. 

Oh, perish learning ! when it sti-ips the soul, 

Of human kindness, gentle love's control ! . 

When, as some Coioper, it enshrouds in gloom, 

Makes Ufe a wreck — a living hateful tomb ! 

Consumes the heart with morbid false desires, 

With envy's poison, hate's too livid fires ; 

Or, when as Johnson^ it demeans with fears. 

With clownish manners and with childish tears ; 

Induces melancholia and its train. 

To gnaw the heart, and break the tender brain ; 

Or when it leads an Olway to an end, 

So mean, so wretched — death without a friend ! 

Or when it sends a Collins howling mad, 

Through aisles his youth was often wont to glad ; 

Or when it lays so early to its rest. 

So bright a soul as Chatterton possessed ; 



THE LEAENED WORLD. 

Or when it deals a Miller., 'mid his rocks, 

A silent blow which startled friendship shocks ; 

An Addison., a testy Pope, estrange ; 

A Swift debauch, and intellect derange ; 

A generous Byron turn to foulest gall ; 

A Dryden beggar, and a Scott enthrall ; 

A Campbell fetter in the idiot's chains ; 

A Tasso humble, and a Dante pains ; 

A Sheridan in pov'ty doomed to die ; 

Debase a Waller — Kirk Whites force to sigh ; 

When gentle Goldsmiths it denies e'en bread ; 

Farnells debauch, and Butlers leave unfed ; 

A Rochester debase, a Milton blind. 

With envy damned, to daughters most unkind ; 

Severe and arbitrary, 'bove control, 

Superiors scorning with a testy soul ; 



10 THE LEARNED WOEXD. 

When Cowleys fitted to adorn life's stage, 

It bears to wither in seclusion's shade ; 

When Edmund Neals it moves to drown in wine, 

The eating sorrows of a soul divine ; 

When soaring Rowleys it misleads to forge, 

With lies on lies the public mind engorge ; 

To Newgate drags a Savage with his woes, 

And there in death behold his eyelids close ; 

A Sheffield of his virtue early filch, 

A Rousseau's children doom unto the ditch ; 

And when, alas ! it wrecks an ardent Poe, 

Ere hfe's meridian, lays his form so low ; 

A Fairfield loads with debt and broken heart, 

Whose restless sorrows 'lude the grasp of art ; 

A Percival to morbid state consign. 

Whose heart in sadness waited on his mind ; 



THE LEAKNED WOELD. 11 

Or when the nervous system it assails, 

And o'er the buoyant spirit then prevails — 

And through each year how fails the scholar's health, 

More needed than is fame, more dear than wealth ! 

Oh, perish learning — cursed ! we fearless cry, 

If health's the price of learning's full supply ; 

If pain and anguish is the scholar's end. 

Throw books away, that we may live like men ! 

O, fairest science ! with thine eagle eye, 

Thou'st looked through earth and thro' the liquid sky, 

In all directions hast thou wandered far. 

Whilst thought has been thy ever watchful star : 

Be ours the task to pass through thy broad realms, 

Admire their grandeur, and avail their balms. 

Well cudgel rogues, who, in the scholar's gown, 



12 THE LEARNED "WORLD. 

Look wise and witty to deceive the town ; 
Affect to know what dunces ne'er can learn, 
That knowledge is in wisdom's ways to turn. 
Divide we now thy pleasant various walks, 
And note each blockhead as he vainly stalks. 
Contrast his impudence with wisdom's air, 
And know a Socrates from sulky bear ; 
For worth to falsity is e'er opposed, 
As deadly night-shade to the tender rose. 

THEOL OGY. 

Come, gruff Theology ! thy paw, thou bear ! 

Thy shaggy main befits thy sullen air : 

Of all the beasts which tread the field of life, 

None hate so hearty, or so foster strife ! 

In Dante's mind, the leading thought was God, 



THE LEARNED WORLD. 13 

And those fair realms, his stately bless'd abode ! 
This is thy boast thou coarse disputive power, 
Whilst mocking God e'en from thy natal hour. 
Glance o'er the records of thy thousand years, 
So torn with sighs and drenched with tender tears, 
See where thy hoof has crushed the noble breast 
Of soaring genius, unfledged in its nest ; 
See where thy teeth has rent fair beauty's cheek, 
Thy paw hath slain the daring and the weak ! 
Thy monstrous birth by error got of truth. 
From age to age hath formed ingenuous youth ; 
His soul instructed to defend a faith. 
With more of Pagan than of Christian pith ; 
Slay, burn, and wrack, the honest doubt of man, 
" To please Jehovah, and sustain his plan ! " 
From age to age hast thou with fear assailed, 

2 



14 THE liEAENED "WOKLD. 

Heretic judgment and with force prevailed, 
Till Luther^ breaking from thy iron grasp, 
Truth's holy volume to the world unclasp'd ; 
Unfettered mind, and bade it bow no more. 
To Pagan rites and " Babylonish whore ! " 
The word translated from the pure Greek text, 
Came now in fashion with unnumbered sects ; 
Each one examined for himself the page. 
Nor trusted more to cunning priest or sage : 
But yet Theology held to its way. 
And o'er the flexile heart kept constant sway ; 
The learned man still awed the gaping crowd. 
And bore his blushing honors vain and proud : 
Still were the schools disputing as of yore. 
Ere yet at JSice they down Arius bore ; 
That " arch-deceiver," who to Christ denied 



THE LEARNED WOKLD. 15 

The Godhead, and the powers o' church defied. 

The world was flooded with unbridled thought ! 

Election, or damnation Calvin taught ; 

An uncheck'd madness ruled the active hour,' 

And Gods and demons plied their ablest power. 

Religion, fairest blossom o' th' tree of life, 

Of men made fiends, arrayed in deadliest strife ! 

The scene of carnage and of hate moved on. 

With statelier steps than that of Marathon — 

Jugurthine wars, Philistine battles bold, 

When Jew and Gentiles meeting, backward roU'd ! 

The schools from first to last have trained its mind, 

To force opinions on oppressed mankind : 

Wherever learning has set up its camp. 

On Asia's arid shores, or Egypt's damp. 

In earliest epoch, or in later age. 



16 THE liEARNEB WORLD. 

There cursed error blots the scholar's page ! 
For none so wedded to opinions are, 
As those who gather them from near and far ; 
Who ransack Ubraries through a life of lust, 
For that lov'd power, alone the student's trust ! 

See, see, that slender form ! with eyes so sore, 
Abstracted turn the well-thumb'd volumes o'er, 
For facts important to a chain of truth. 
Began while yet he was a beardless youth ; 
His bloodless face, his lank uncertain limbs, • 
His manners plain, his strange and varied whims. 
Peculiar cough, his sunken deep-set eye, 
His looks suspicious and his movements shy. 
Are they not all presumptive of a man. 
Who's studied more than truth, or hfe demand ; 



THE LEARNED WORLD. 17 

Do they not warn from off bleak learning's shore, 

Ambitious mariner, eager to explore. 

His head is crammed with witty authors' gems, 

Born of his genius, boldly he pretends ; 

His thoughts so various, so crosswise inclined. 

Fatigues his brain, nor can be well defined, 

A theologian he — " one of the schools," 

One of the many wise and learned fools, 

Whose lives are passed in settling mooted points, 

Haranguing students, and in loud complaints ; 

Dyspeptic, melancholy, and, morose. 

From peace and dearest happiness divorced, 

He teaches that which may, perchance, be truth. 

With temper soured from his early youth ; 

Nor knows no more than books alone contain, 

A mixture vile of lore, pretension, vain ' 
2* 



18 THE LEARNED WORLD. 

Theology, with all its million tomes, 
Carries but discord into Christian homes ; 
Of God, nor Heaven, nor dreary Hell informs, 
With proof decisive, but the soul to storms, 
Is yet exposed from skeptic winter's clime, 
Which saps its love, its life to vice incline !^ 

" Light ! light ! " the sad and darkened mind exclaims ; 

Theology replies : " behold these names ! 

Honored, while yet the precious blood of Christ, 

In purple streams bore witness to its price ! 

These names, these names, these early fathers pure, 

Are not their teachings light for evermore ! 

Is not the Father, Holy-Ghost, and Son, 

Three unities distinct, complete in one ? 

Baptized, confirmed, a member of the Church, 



THE LEAKNED ■WORLD. 19 

What light need more ? you've hght, e'en now o'er- 

much ! " 
Thus prates Theology, that's termed the Church ; 
Its doctors wise are men of great research ; 
They know, or think, the Trinity is true, 
That no faith else the gates of Heaven pass through. 
" Here then is light enough ; " this sect declares ; 
" Trust to the Trinity, and say your prayers ; 
When death transports you to another world. 
E'en as thy God, thou'lt be of Godlike mold ! " 
He doubts ! the doctrine strange he does not know ; 
To Christ as God, he will not, cannot bow ! 
Appalled and sorrowed at the darkness 'round, 
He clears the churchman at a single bound : 
" More light ! more light ! " he cries ; a Roman priest 
He now accosted, who served well a jest ; 



20 THE LEARNED "WORLD. 

" Oh, holy father, turn ! Oh, turn and say. 
What light have you to Heaven's distant way : 
Inwearied, I would now my God embrace, 
Say, father, say, where look you for his face ? " 
The priest with head erect and lordly air, 
Inquiring Truth bade listen, or despair ; 
" I am, dear sir, the God you seek, the way, 
The life, the blessed, ay, th' eternal day ! 
I and the Pope are in St. Peter's chair. 
To hell can send you, 6r to upper air : 
Believe in me, give freely of your gains. 
And I'll dispense your heaviest sins and pains; 
No more shall doubt with its consuming fires, 
Thy dear hopes melt, and blast thy fond desires ; 
Along thy path the primrose shall delight, 
Thy moody eye so long encased in night ; 



THE XEAKNED WORLD. 21 

Thy God shall be the Pope — give Him thy thought ; 

Confess, do penance, if to crimes thou'rt brought : 

We bid the soul take broadest, wildest flight, 

And course the earth in blasphemy and night ; 

The Pope, our father, loves his children well, 

Will save them all, if penitent, from Hell." 

Astonished Truth his fiery eye then turned, 

Full on the priest, whose teachings false he spurned, 

And with a self-complacent mien withdrew, 

Apart from him he somewhat sought to view : 

Indignant gazed, then his dark presence fled. 

By this impostor he would not be led : 

Fast travelling on he came where th' ocean lay, 

In solemn silence 'neath the milky way : 

Here as he sat beside sea-beaten shore, 

A Hebe passing, stopped, as him she saw ; 



22 THE LEA-KNED WORLD. 

Truth grasp'd her hand and press'd it to his heart, 

Kissed her fair brow, and bade her ne'er depart : 

Trembling she started from his warm embrace, 

And in her tresses hid her beauteous face. 

With blushes crimsoned and suffused with tears, 

Whilst her round arm against his arm she rears : 

" Weep not, my gentle one, I mean no harm, 

As ocean here my passioned soul is calm ; 

Thou art a thing of beauty, and I love 

By beauteous nature to be met and moved ; 

I seek my God ; I would religion know. 

And this fond heart on Heaven alone bestow ! " 

" Oh, gentle sir," the Hebe soft replied, 

Her dark eyes casting on the heaving tide, 

" My husband taught when here upon the earth, 

God's unity ! His word, of Christ, the birth : 



THE LEARNEP WORLD. 23 

The simple doctrine of fair duty, love, 

A. faith which each true honest heart may prove ! " 

Then his arm placing 'round her swan-like neck, 

Truth kiss'd the beauty, as an angel decked ; 

" Thou, fairest of the fair," he said, " I note 

Such music in thy words as truth denote ! 

Sweet love ! that is indeed with duty linked. 

Nor can God be with those who else may think : 

But, oh, my sweet one, how imperfect lay, 

The paths to ages past, far, far away ! 

In vain we seek to know the unmixed truth, 

In vain we ask Theology for proof ! 

The scholar bowed with mingled shame and pride, 

Is tempted oft all learning to deride : 

For knowledge apt, yet, laboring all in vain, 

To learn of God — he lives and dies in pain ! 



24 THE LEARNED WORLD. 

Confusion seizes on his o'erwrought soul, 
Nor sees he ought but nature in the whole." 
" Oh, sir, beware," the dark-eyed beauty said, 
" How curious thought distracts thy pious head, 
Demand no more of learning for our faith. 
Than is attained by love's uncertain frith : 
Be humble, self-distrustful, and content, 
Thy soul on works and not on words intent ! 
Of all religions, which by turns have rolled, 
In wild excitement o'er the human soul, 
That taught by Jesus is the noblest far. 
The bright, the cheering, wakeful morning star ! 
Oh, doubt not, then, that God its maker was. 
Nor fairer day than is our merry Ch'tmas." 
She ceased, while from the beamy eye of Trufky 
The tears flowed freely as from tender youth : 



THE LEAKNED "WORLD, 25 

'* You speak," said he, " with sweet and holy trust ; 

Like some pure spirit formed not of the dust ; 

Oh ! would to God my soul as thine could feel, 

This faith in that so partially revealed : * 

'Lighter than air hope's summer visions die, 

If but a fleeting cloud obscure the sky, 

If but a beam of sober reason play, 

Lo ! fancy's fairy frost-work melts away. ' 

So I, my fair one, doubting of the way. 

No God can know, and him no homage pay : 

Farther than where yon silver moon ascends, 

Thro' th' azure's vault her course imperial bends, 

Would I pursue the rugged way of search, 

To know the Bible is of Heav'n the arch ! 

Command direct from those august domains, 

Where crime shall cease with its too racking pains : 
3 



26 IHE LEABNED WORLD. 

But all to me is darkness unto death, 

I see but Nature, gather of her wealth : 

Effects on thousand wings about me flit, 

I can but wonder as I musing sit ; 

Their causes but imperfectly perceive, 

Nor from what's known, in God o'er much believe." 

The woman touched with Truth's too rigid mind, 

Wept o'er his doubts, against his form reclined ; 

Within her trembling hand she took his own. 

And bent in pensive mood her head adown : 

'• Unhappy sir," she spoke, " thy doubts I weep, 

For noblest natures are as ocean deep ; 

Ah, thoughts on thoughts within their being rise. 

As clouds on clouds obscure the ambient skies : 

They would believe, but reason asks to Jcnow, 

Has faith in naught which may from falsehood flow ; 



THE XEAKNED WORLD. 27 

Vet, if we may in aught, our reason spare, 
Nor make exaction with too nice a care, 
'Tis when the evidence of Christian creed 
Itself arrays, that Christ may be our meed : 
'Tis not complete, nor full, as crystal clear, 
Yet th' truth we pant for, if on earth is here." 
" Oh, generous heart ! oh, lovely form ! " he cried, 
" E'er I had seen thee, would that I had died ! 
Thou torturest much my soul — it never knew. 
So sweet a trust, as that taught it by you ; 
Could I believe where doubts on doubts assail, 
And 'gainst my reason cunningly prevail, 
Happy, as you and they, who plead thy faith, 
Should I respire from pain and anguish safe : 
But unto me 'tis fated earth to roam. 
Debarred all knowledge of a future home ; 



28 THE LEAENED WORLD. 

A wretch whose thinking soul finds no delight, 
While o'er its brow hangs black perpetual night ; 
No forms of nature, no sweet poet's joy, 
Can light my heart, or its sad notes destroy.'* 
The woman fair, with tender pressure placed, 
Her soft white hand against the skeptic's face. 
And gently bending to her breast his head. 
In lowly accents, thus, she weeping, said : 
" Brother, dear brother, if on earth there dwells, 
In fashion's blaze, or hermit's gloomy cells, 
A heart so swept of holy trust as thine, 
I'd seek it out thro' distance and thro' time ; 
I'd fold it to my breast, as I do thee. 
Its griefs commend to Christ, the Deity ! 
Unhappy sir, to prayer entrust thy soul, 
And angels pure will yet thy faith unfold." 



THE LEARNED WORLD. 29 

She ceased, when Truth moved with a holy bliss, 

On her fair brow impress'd a trembling kiss, 

And clasping in his arms her graceful form, 

With tears bedewed it, born of passion's storm — 

The tender love which as the mountain stream, 

Leaps wildly down the rocks and smiling green. 

Pure as the source from whence it took its rise, 

The fleecy clouds which dance athwart the skies. 

Pensive they walked along the sea-wash'd shore. 

And spoke no word, but thought on thought turn'd 

o'er ; 

Sudden a light more brilliant than the day. 

The sky broke through, disclosed a golden way ; 

The skeptic trembling gazed with silent awe, 

As now in robes he spangled angels saw : 

" Fear not ! " the dark-eyed counsellor low spoke, 
8* 



30 THE LEARNED WORLD. 

" These are my sisters, which thine awe hath woke ; 

They come to greet us, — bear me far away, 

Where forming worlds round solar systems play : 

We visit earth, as falls the gentle rain, 

And then return to starry homes again." 

She kissed the skeptic, bade him not despair. 

Then in an instant vanished into air : 

No more the lurid light was seen in th' sky, 

But all was as no angels had been nigh. 

Enraptured Truth, wild with uncertain bliss. 

Fell prostrate to the earth, its bosom kissM, 

Then to the music of old ocean's roar. 

He pledged to Hope, his soul for evermore ! 

Though angels' visits are so far between. 

He deemed that angels holy he had seen ; 

Yet, o'er his skeptic mind, too soon a thought 



THE LEAKNED WORLD. 31 

Came blighting, as in summer comes the drought ; 

The thought that self-deception had imposed, 

This scene unnatural to increase his woes I 

Delusion had, ere then its victims held, 

To madness plung'd, or, deeper yet, to Hell ; 

Mad he might be, for aught that he could know ; 

That seen might be the brain's unhealthy glow ! 

By doubts distracted, fears assailed his breast, 

As he laid down by ocean's feet to rest ; 

And as the sparkling foam rolls with broad sweep, 

His sighing soul is gently rocked to sleep. 

The morning rosy fills the eastern sky, 

As Truth awakes to sift Theology ; 

To travel on until through learning sped, 

He might find God, or, else, what God had said : 

Of angels doubting, he believed the form, 



32 THE LEARNED WOIILD. 

Which yester' met him, was of Fancy born ; 

He'd not permit such curious sprites as these, 

To bend his reason to the Christian creeds : 

He'd knoio, or else he'd not consent to say, 

That that was truth, which could not proof display; 

Proof, proof, he called for proof! it bore 

To him more value than weak faiths — a score ! 

Onward he went until he met a Jew, 

At once he stopped and took of him a view ! 

" A scholar he ! " the skeptic says, " I'm sure, 

To know these fellows by their eyelids sore ; 

Their walk, too, negligent attire, and face, 

The dirty mirror of a mind encased, 

In rules, precedents, paradoxes bold. 

And dusty libraries sombre and passing old : — 

I'll speak to him ; I'll ask him what is truth, 



THE LEA.RNED WORLD 33 

What ' sweet religion ' — what its special worth." 

" Truth ! " growled the Jew ; " why, monish, sir, is truth, 

Fill well your purse, be chary of your youth, 

Trust no man from your sight, his bond secure. 

All dues collect, and when you can, e'en more." 

" But, sir, you do mistake," the skeptic cried, 

As th' jolly Jew in secret scorn was eyed ; 

" I ask you what Religion is, what Christ ? " 

" Why, man," said Jew, " a mad enthusiast ! 

One Saviour of a number who presumed, 

To be the Christ — the Godhead to assume : 

We hung him on the cross, because we knew. 

To spare would bring more whining Christs to view :" 

" Then he was not the holy word of God ? " 

Inquired the skeptic, pressing close the sod : 

" That word is Moses^ and the prophets all, 



34 THE LEARNED WOELD. 

Who else would teach it, foul impostor call ! " 
Returned the Jew, his keen eye flashing wild, 
Whilst scornful he with darksome passion smiled ; 
' I've ranged thro' learning's dim and briery field. 
But find no God by Rabbis unrevealed : 
If then, sir, you may wish of Him to learn, 
You should to Jewish faith this moment turn : 
I've ope'd the way, if now you take it not, 
You'll be passed by, and soon, too soon forgot.'* 
The Skeptic wreathing in vexation's toils, 
Frowned at the Jew, bent o'er with learning's spoils ; 
And doubting all which he might have to teach, 
Passed from his side in worthier scholar's search : 
Anon, he met a square-toed Quaker, mild, 
In form so straight, simplicity a child ; 
The Skeptic bowed, the Quaker did the same, 



THE LEAKNED "WOELD. 35 

With " thee and thou " inquired the Skeptic's name : 

In converse free the two were soon engaged, 

And as they spoke much good their words presaged ; 

Still would the Skeptic hope to learn of truth, 

From e'en this lank, long-haired divine, uncouth ; 

Still would he hope to find the flowery way, 

Which leadeth forth to truth's eternal day ! 

He found, howe'er, from all the Quaker said, 

His faith fanatic, and a mop his head : 

Onward he passed with Conscience light and free. 

Where Wesley's converts, 'camp'd — were on their 

knee. ^ 

A " Pic-Nic party had assembled " there, 
And " jolly beaux wedged in with jolly fair ;" 
He heard the Gospel ; and he heard the groan, 
The tender sighs and plaintive sullen moan ; 



36 THE LEARNED WOKLD. 

He bade a scholar of the faith explain ; 

Put close his ear to catch each earnest strain ; 

" T'is thus, my friend, we humbly worship God, 

Made flesh in Christ — we go the ways he trod. 

His word is truth ! who doubts is doubly damned! 

Believe, or perish ! was his stern command : 

We groan because the spirit is oppressed, 

Our sins are heavy and our hearts distressed ; 

We gather in these silent gi'oves to breathe, 

A purer prayer, a purer life conceive ; 

We know that Jesus loved fair Nature well, 

The mountain tops, the downy grassy dell ; 

We know that John, and James, and Matthew, Mark, 

The dark woods roamed — e'en as its native hart ; 

We know that God is God, and Christ is Christ, 

That Virtue shuns the winning smile of vice ! 



THE XEAKNED "WORLD. 37 

That watchful Satan moves securely round, 

With virtue's children is too frequent found ; 

We know that death is but the door to Ufe, 

A.nd ends injustice with inhuman strife." 

" What !" cried the skeptic, " says't thou this is truth ? 

By Jove ! dear sir, I'd have at once the proof ! 

You know what I before all else would learn, 

And by my soul ! but teach me and I'll spurn, 

All trivial fond conceits, all objects mean, 

Hereafter live from doubt each soul to wean." 

The Druid looked amazed at Skeptic's glance. 

With th' fervor wild of his dear hope's advance ; 

His noble visage awed the Scholar's mind, 

With care more cautious were his words combined : 

" Good sir, I say I know ; that is, by faith, 

This is our light, and this alone our strength ! 
4 



38 THE LEAKNED WORLD. 

Oh, no ; think not I mean to say that all 

Is known as truth, related from the fall." 

" Then, sir ! " the querist said, " a skeptic still 

Am I, no merest fancies move my will ; 

When Christian scholars can inform my mind, 

Of that I seek, they '11 me a hero find ; 

My life, my fortune, should an offering be, 

If true appeared thy Christianity ! 

But whilst the word is but mere form of faith, 

ril Pagan be, till lost in frigid death." 

Onward the Skeptic passed, disheartened, sad, 
Till by a tree in honest homespun clad, 
He saw a noble form 'gainst it reclined. 
Whose open features spoke a lovely mind : 
Their eyes no sooner met, than Truth drew near, 



THE LEAENED WORLD. ' 39 

And mutual warmth provoked a mutual tear ; 

" What seek ye, friend ! " the noble stranger said, 

Aj9 bent with grace his full and Roman head ; 

" What seek ye, here, where birds and crickets play, 

Where man comes not, save when he needs to pray ? " 

" What seek I ? holy truth ! " the Skeptic said, 

" T would to heaven, my life, my fortune wed ; 

I wander frantic o'er the earth to find. 

This priceless treasure thro' some learned mind ; 

Canst thou, good sir, whose face is as a sun, 

My wants supply — be goal to which I run ; 

Light, light, I madly crave, must have, or die, 

As falls the brute, or fades the fleeting sifjh." 

" Listen, dear brother," spoke the stranger mild, 

" As thou, am I, dread doubt's distracted child ; 

My years have sped in research for the proof, 



40 THE LEAENED "WOELD. 

Of clearer knowledge in sweet Christ's behoof! 

Oft have my labors crushed my weary brain, 

A season's brief repose — at work again ; 

But though all tongues I speak — have read with care ; 

But for my faith ! I should in doubt despair : 

Methinks I see a God in Nature's laws, 

With Christ methinks his high and holy cause. 

Which binds our wayward hearts in tender love, 

Unites us all to him and his above : 

If in the Scriptures God speaks not to men, 

Our souls arc chartless — rayless death our end ! 

For look through Nature whereso'er you will. 

And Man''s but matter, breath and body, still ! 

The changing year, reopening buds of spring, 

May foster hope^ but no assurance bring ! 

The gi'ave is dark, indeed, in Nature's eye. 



THE LEARNED WORLD. 41 

A.nd fearful 'tis to sickea and to die : 

But, if 'tis true, that on these pages writ, 

The way is clear, with radiant truth 'tis lit ! 

Believe then, brother, though tis not explained, 

What ye would know to make the doctrine plain : " 

" Believe ? " the Skeptic said " oh, what believe ? 

That all is truth — in naught we are deceived ? 

That disputatious rogues in th' early age, 

Have tampered not with that notorious page ? 

Dost thou believe it ? no, ah, no my friend, 

Thy heart is true, 'twill not thy truth offend ! 

Says not our Foley ^ that the age is dark, 

When Christ by thorns and Roman spear was mark'd ? 

When wrote Apostles, and the Fathers hurled, 

Their fierce Anathemas at scoffing world ? '* 

" Most true, most true ; " the stranger then replied, 
4* 



42 THE LEARNED "WORLD. 

So all is dark with Nature's self as guide ; 

How vain our efforts to behold her light, 

Save when some mind may make a partial flight ; 

O, sir, be not exacting, curb thy pride, 

And humbly hence in Christian's faith abide : 

Think, if there is a God, he must have given. 

Some word to man from out his holy Heaven ; 

And that if word there be from him on earth. 

To Christian creed it must have given birth ! 

Reflect how feeble are our powers to probe, 

Aright these records, what is false disrobe ; 

To universal hfe eternal cling. 

The lamb is Christ, who cleanseth all from sin." 

" A Universalist I see thou art," 

Returned the skeptic, " and I prize thy heart ; 

None yet have I approached of truth to hear, 



THE LEARNED WOKLD. 43 

Whose manly accents more have charmed my ear : 

And though my doubts, deep rooted, yet remain, 

A happier man am I for thy declaim ; 

And though my years as thine may lengthen far, 

Thy words shall be my sleepless guiding star ; 

Love universal ! shall redeem us all ; 

He'll not slight man who marks the sparrow's fall. 

This is thy text, and this my text shall be, 

Where'er I wander, if on land, or sea : 

Farewell, dear sir ; may holy peace attend 

Thy watchful breast, and be thy constant friend." 

These words the Skeptic had no sooner breathed, 

Than pressing stranger's hand he took his leave ; 

And bounding through the forest's shady green. 

No more about these pleasant grounds were seen. 



44 THE LEARNED "WORLD. 

Next came he where a Baptist fervent preached, 

And stayed his steps to hear what he might teach ; 

His voice was loud, dogmatic was his strain, 

To th' unbaptized damnation he proclaimed ! 

The Skeptic shuddered at his tragic air, 

And fled the presence of so gruff a bear : 

And so he went the round of all the sects, 

> 
Opinion's various shades with care inspects ; 

Whilst genius glance, as lightning sweeps the whole, 

And bows his sad, impassioned, restless soul ! 

Of th' thousand creeds that bless and curse the earth, 

All might from man^ and none from God had birth ; 

The aspect moral of each one appeared, 

Alike with crime and sensual rites besmeared : 

This life to him was dark, this earth was damned, 

For aught that he could prove, but brute, a man ! 



THE IwEARNED WORLD. 45 

Placing his hand within his bosom's fold, 

A dirk he drew to free his sickened soul ; * 

And as his arm extended sought to strike, 

The pitying sky disclosed a brilliant light. 

Which as before had met his trembling eye, 

When ocean's foam he stood with angel by: 

Forth from the light there shot an airy form, 

As darts some star on unseen pinions borne ; 

An instant, and beside sad Truth she stood, 

As some fair Nymphae in impervious wood ; 

" Brother, dear brother ! stay thine arm ; " she cried ; 

" Not with thy blood be thine own poniard dyed ! 

Despair no more, believe on me and live, 

Thine anxious ear to me attentive give : 

Wouldst know, indeed, thy God,wouldst hear his voice, 

Be childlike, sweet simplicity thy choice ; 



46 THE LEARNED WORLD. 

O doubt not from too earnest love of truth, 
Si7ice nothing is that's absolute, of proof : 
Whate'er we see, or think, or act, or feel. 
Proves naught whilst yet to us is unrevealed, 
How cause on cause in endless circle rolls. 
From earth's foundations to its barren poles, 
Until, converging to a single ray, 
The form of God — the cause of cause display ! 
Proof positive you ask ? you ask in vain ! 
The flower, the tree, the nurturing cooling rain, 
Is not more dumb than must all learning be. 
If this ye ask shall e'er be furnished thee. 
All Nature is a mystery profound ! 
"Within the air, the sea, the teeming ground. 
How life on Ufa with countless action's marked, 
From lazy worm, to sprightly cheerful lark : 



THE LEARNED WORLD. 47 

With life mysterious, even thus abound, 

The word revealed^ of purpose most profound ! 

All man in Nature, or Religion needs, 

Divinest wisdom teacheth in its creeds ! 

As Nature of our food informs, with care 

Protects us, e'en with fond parental air, 

Our 'commodation seeks, our safety guides, 

E'en so Religion for the soul provides ; 

To neighbors and to God our duties mark, 

And light assign where all would else be dark ! 

Within immediate sphere our thoughts should bide, 

Else, soaring, full we with the weight of pride, 

And dreary darkness meet on every side. 

The curious mind should curious thoughts forego, 

And perish not in atheistic woe ! 

Its far flights check, content in lower air. 



48 THE LEARNED WOKED. 

Thro' hope sustained and patient faith most fair ! 
Material bodies ne'er their essence name ; 
Yet, from mysterious source, 'tis sure they came ; 
How gi'ows the seed to green and stately tree, 
How man is formed, the pod around the pea, 
How acts the mind upon the curious nerves, 
How formed was language, sings the timid birds, 
All, all is mystery, so too our faith — 
Yet is it truth — as certain as is death ! 
As Nature, Bev elation is ohscure — 
Admit the fact nor dare to question more : 
It does exceed the faculties of mind. 
Our simple faith to prove, indeed, divine : 
No more can ye creation's birth explain, 
Existent evil with God's holy name ! 
Prescience divine and freedom of the will. 



THE LEARNED WORLD. 49 

Must e'er the reason, curious, baffle still ! 

Jehovah's mind we may not hope to scan, 

Not e'en his presence is permitted man ; 

In all his paths he is a watchful God, 

Who keeps his counsel, spares not earth his rod. 

He maketh darkness his pavillion'd zone, 

And sits a monarch viewless on his throne ! 

O marvel not our creed is so obscure. 

Were it not thus 'twould be the stranger more ; 

Had all been level to the human mind. 

Suspecting still, to douht would more incline ; 

Since then so varying from whate'er's observed. 

In nature and the systems she's preferred. 

All men would say in one unbroken strain ; 

'Tis foul imposture, vulgar, weak, and vain ; 

But as the Gospel stands to Nature true, 
5 



50 THE LEAENED WOKLD. 

If one's divine, the other is so too ; 
Plain as to practice, comprehensive, wise, 
To speculation dark, in faith, concise ; 
To trust alone with humble judgment joined, 
Does it give light, the only light divine ! 
Give me thy dirk, have trust and boldly live, 
A Christian be, our sacred creed believe ! " 
" Ah, lovely form !" the tearful Skeptic said. 
As o'er her breast he bent his aching head, — 
" Believe ! oh, yes, sweet love ! I here forswear, 
All doubt, hereafter, do but teach me fair ; 
My dirk receive, with it my blessing take, 
Reveal thy Nature, me a Christian make ! " 
She took within her blue-veined graceful hand. 
The unused weapon as was Truth's command, 
And with a toss it buried in the wave. 



THE LEARNED WORLD. 51 

Then her freed hand to admiring Skeptic gave : 

He pressed it to his lips in rapture wild, 

With many a tear and many a gladsome smile : 

" Kneeling to thee, oh, beauteous radiant form, 

I plead to know, of whom, of what thou'rt born ; 

Before when I beheld thy liquid eyes, 

As parting thou didst vanish in the skies, 

Methought I ne'er in two such orbs had known, 

That power complete which o'er each heart is thrown ; 

My inmost being, with its sweet charms stirred. 

Than part with them, had direst death preferred ; 

So strange our meeting, stranger still thy flight, 

A dream methought it through a troubled night ; 

And when the morning came and thou not near, 

I doubted all 'till thou shouldst reappear : 

Now holding thee within my own fond arms, 



52 THE LEARNED WORLD, 

I feel thy presence and I taste thy balms ; 

Oh, say of what, of whom, and whence hath sprung, 

The Stars, the Moon, the Planets, or the Sun : 

Certain I am thou'rt purer than this sphere ; 

An angel visitant from realms more dear , 

Into thine eyes I look and 'mid their depths. 

My vision's lost, I backward trace my steps : 

Thy soul is boundless as thy thoughts are free. 

Thy worth so tender bends my haughty knee. 

Ah, do not turn away thy gracious face, 

But hold it where I each sweet thought may trace ; 

Not oft 'tis granted to a Skeptic's soul, 

In one fair form such beauty to behold ! 

Press to my cheek thy arched and matchless brow, 

That mingling pulse may mingling souls allow : 

Bear me away to where no sorrow glides, 



THE LEARNED WORLD. 53 

With hateful mien along life's azure tides : 

Where sparkling diamonds typify the heart, 

And all are merry acting well their part : 

O, bear me off from this dark scene of woe, 

That I may Christ and his bless'd mansions know." 

" Brother," the shade replied, — " O, ask me not, 

To bear thee on to that angelic spot ; 

For I have not the power though strong the will. 

Thy wish to grant, thy fervid hopes fulfill ! 

'Bide thou the laws by which thy sphere is ruled, 

Be not impatient in its dreary school ; 

Learn well thy lesson and when time shall end, 

On angel wings thy flight to Heaven shall bend ! 

I know that Heaven there is, Christ reigneth there, 

That all without is darkness and despair ! 

That faith alone, a contrite humble heart, 
5* 



54 THE LEAKNED WOELD. 

Can enter in unbidden to depart." 

" Thanks, thanks Seraphic being !" Truth exclaimed, 

And to her bosom warmly pressed again ; 

"Words are too poor my wealth of bliss to name, 

Since out yon sky in dazzling light thou came ; 

No more my restless passions shall destroy, 

That peace of mind — the Christian's holy joy : 

In humble self-distrust and not in lore, 

Will I put confidence for evermore ! 

Theology of earth e'er earthy is. 

Who plays the game now makes and now will miss. 

Ah ! millions to its gloomy shades repair, 

From wish most vain the scholar's gown to wear : 

Ye heavenly host ! me save from such a pride, 

Which haughty sects from humbler sects divide. 

And mutual hates and mutual envy joins, — 



THE LEARNED WORLD. 55 

To point the wisdom of the scholar's pains ! 
These curse his labor, hiss his narrow mind, 
And Heaven's sweet ways thro' other medium find." 
" Thy prayer is answered ;" spoke the angel low, 
" Thou'lt ne'er a bigot be, nor faithless foe ; 
Thou'lt cherish truth with firm yet patient thought, 
Thy converts all forbearance will be taught ; 
Nature and God and Jesus Christ will be, 
Thy cherished faith, thy holy trinity !* 
Upward and onward thy perpetual flight, 
No more thy soul shall be obscured by night, 
Clearer and clearer shall thy vision beam, 
'Till angel forms each day and hour are seen, 
To glide o'er earth and watch with broken hearts, 
Attemper grief when some dear friend departs. 
Thou'd know, who, what I am, and whence I came — 



50 



THE LEARNED WOKLD. 



I am an angel ! Martha, is my name ; 

I come from Christ ! wlio ere the world was form'd, 

Conversed with G*d, of His wise plans informed ! 

I was of earth ; but years long since unrobed 

Of all its grossness, for more bless'd abodes ! 

Happy I am by their perpetual spruigs, 

Their I'osy vales and rich luxuriant greens, 

Their gentle breezes and soft mellow clime, 

Agreeably changing to delight the mind ; 

Their noble arts of eve;.y varied type, 

That heart can tnove, or happiest thought invite : 

Their boundless views, their friendships unreserv'd, 

Their grottoes fair, where each soft whisper's heard 

Such brother, dear, are those fair realms of light, 

To which my counsels thee and thine invite ; 

O, guard our faith, to duty, love, be true, 



THE LEARNED AVOELD. 57 

And they ere long will open to thy view ! " 
" Sweet sister, pure !" replied excited Truths 
" On fancy's wings I'll backward fly to youth ; 
No more shall manhood's swelling pride debase 
My sacred soul, which thou hast made so chaste ; 
Eternal youth shall my new faith secure, 
I'll sigh nor sorrow, idly dream no more ; 
But true to thee, to God, and to the Son, 
My soul in peace possess till life's outrun ; 
My guardian angel, Martha, thou must be, 
To note my steps and watch my fancy free, 
Lest led away by self- seductive strain, 
I fly the faith, become a fool again ! 
In feathers dressed of proud scholastic birds. 
Their wild notes sing — in every college heard ; 
Be thou then love fast to my listening ear, 



58 THE LEABNED WORLD. 

To curb my mind, when 'tis disposed to veer ; 
Its progress steady, and support its faith, 
'Till I at length shall lay me down in death. ; 
Then, as my spirit, is from matter purged, 
Be thou my guide t' creation's utmost verge ; 
Show me the beauties which thine eye hath seen. 
Lead me where'er thy matchless form has been ; 
Never forsalce, but of my soul be part, 
Nerve of my nerve — responsive to my heart." 
' Beautiful thought !" the angel fair exclaimed, 
" Thy friend I'll be through sorrow and thro' shame ; 
No harm shall fall thee, no sad doubts assail, 
I'll over both, with easy will prevail ; 
And on, through all eternity shall twine. 
With this fond breast, that tender breast of thine." 
" Upon my knees which never bend to man, 



THE XEAENED WOELD. 59 

Again I take, again I kiss thy hand ;" 
Replied Sir Truth, in tremulous accents deep, 
Who ne'er Hill now, was seen to sigh or weep ; 
" Thanks, ah, many thanks, for thy dear love, 
To mc vouchsafed, from kindred minds above ! 
I ne'er till now have known a perfect bliss, 
No day so bright, no hour so sweet as this !" 
The angel brushing from his heated brow, 
(Which rivalled near the dancing crystal snow,) 
The reckless locks which lay confused there, 
With kisses bathed it with her gentlest air ; 
" Oh, brother dear, farewell, farewell, farewell ! 
My love be o'er thee, as a ceaseless spell ! 
My prescient eye shall ne'er from thee be turned, 
'Till thy new faith, for aye ! shall be confirmed : 
Away I hie me to th' Elysian fields — 



60 THE LEAKNED WOKLD. 

Again, farewell, 'tis much my heart conceals :" 
An instant, and this angel sprite was gone, 
On wings of gossamer in safety borne ; 
Astonished Truth her sought throughout the air, 
He gaz'd in vain — his Martha was not there. 

So from our grasp, hope following hope recedes. 
Close on our joys come sorrow with its weeds ! 
When most secure the pleasures most we prize, 
Some plague occurring, pleasure's ardor dies. 
So lonely traveller, far removed from home, 
O'er boisterous seas, and trackless deserts roam, 
'Till, absence wearying, backward bends his way ; 
In sight of home, by death is swept away ! 
His loved ones looking for his long lost form, 
Wither and break before sad sorrow's storm ; 



THE LEARNED -WORLD. Q\ 

So the bold miner, hopeful, bores the earth, 
For tempting treasure leaves his cozy hearth, 
Where happy hearts would prattle round his knee, 
His love engage — from cares bid him be free ! 
Yet works he in some lonely gulch afar. 
Or on some quartz vein, or some river's bar, 
Where lofty mountains rise o'er fertile plains, 
And bandits rove " to jump the paying claims ;" 
With picaxe and with spade he daily toils. 
Attacks with vigor the auriferous soils ; 
By hope sustained each swiftly passing hour, 
" To make a strike," and forward dash to power ! 
Days come and go, with weighty labors charged. 
His gains are small — his debts do not discharge ; 
Those hopes deferred which urged him to the work, 
About his soul with fearful anger lurk ; 



62 THE LEAKNED WORLD. 

Impatient friends at home, entreating bread 
With health enfeebled, shake his aching head ; 
His heart depressed o'er long and fruitless toil, 
Yields to his passions and their fierce recoil ; 
With fearful oath he now resolves to die. 
Since health has vanished, friends his fortunes fly ! 
'Mid these Sierras he had bravely fought. 
With smiling hope Nevada's gold he sought ; 
For that he left his home, and lost his health, 
Pursuing shadows, dreaming still of wealth ! 
Going to his claim which deep in th' soil extend, 
Where delved he daily for " a noble end," 
He stood beside its too familiar brink, 
And there abstracted, laid him down to think. 
Some time had passed, when, leaping to his feet, 
His eye excited with his bosom's beat. 



THE LEARNED WORLD. 63 

" I'll work no more ! " he cried, " my muscle's dead, 

My heart is withered, and perplexed my head ; 

The fortune I have sought for is not here. 

No fruit I find but curs'd and bitter tear ; 

Nor have I strength ' to prospect claims anew,' 

And risk what I have risked for gains so few ; 

No, as a man I've lived, as one will die ! 

In this drear hole shall my crushed body lie. 

Ye glorious sun ! a witness to my toil, 

(E' en heavier far than notes the midnight oil, 

Of some wit earnest ia the search for truth. 

Whilst age so sear is on his o'er-work'd youth ;) 

Behold me now thou golden broiv of God I 

As I descend these deeps so often trod, 

Not for its gold, but for the rest of sleep. 

And thou, bright sun ! *I pray my soul to keep. 



64 THE LEARNED WORLD. 

Here let the memory of my fate endure. 

Too proud to live who could not wealth secure ! 

Farewell, ye world, more often foe than friend, 

More apt to borrow, than thou art to lend, 

No more shalt thou my haughty spirit stir, 

With hate or madness — else, to me prefer : 

I go where ye are not ; I thee defy, 

With scorn defiant, now behold me die ! 

Within this deep wide shaft, where I have shed, 

Full many a tear as hopes grew pale and fled, 

Will I in death my wearied bones consign, 

Of this curs'd claim make death's accursed mine ! 

That they, hereafter, who may chance invade, 

This fruitless soil with pickaxe and with spade, 

May know that I who first broke thro' the ground, 

Naugiit saw but tears, and heard but sighs profound ! 



THE LEARNED TTORLD. 65 

And working, working, till I could no more, 

Withdrew from labor, and sweet hope gave o'er ; 

My body buried where my work had been, 

In joy to leave this heartless world of sin — 

Once more, fair sun, thou monarch of the day ! 

1 kiss thy beams and thus to thee, away." 

He plunged ! the rattling stones his body chased ; 

Far down the shaft, they struck his pallid face, 

Which meeting now the flinty soil below, 

Was dashed in fragments by the awful blow : 

Thus do defeated hopes too often tend, 

To break the heart, and bring to Ufe an end ! 

But tho' Sir Truth saw not the angel more, 

Nor was of her reahty full sure. 

He yet had hope, 't was not deception's power, 

Which blessed to him, a sad and hopeless hour : 
*6 



66 THE LEARNED WORLD. 

Bent on his knees in fervent prayer to God, 
In tears he thanked him for this period : 
So happy and transporting was the spell 
Of Martha's voice, he had not tongue to tell. 
His doubts removed, again peace lovely smiled, 
And claimed the skepti^ for her fairest child ; 
He asked no more for proof, his faith was strong, 
And through this life he nimbly tripped along ; 
The birds more sweetly sung, th-e flowers more fair 
To him appeared, and mellower far the air ; 
All Nature through her boundless fields awoke. 
With rosier hues to him she fondly spoke. 
He walked the earth like one who knew his way ; 
Bliss swelled his heart, for hope held happy sway : 
The subtle doctrines of the schools no more, 
Engaged his search, or tempted to explore • 



THE LEARNED WORLD. 67 

He asked no teacher to assist his mind, 

With care read scripture, and with trust combined : 

The truth from out these hoUest leaves would flow, 

When humbly thus the contrite heart would know. 

Of all he'd gathered from the scholar's lore, 

Invention seemed Theology — no more ! 

Yet, while he honored much the Druid's charge, 

He ne'er could priests from all design discharge ; 

They taught tradition, and would still adhere, 

To stale delusion thro' each sighing year ; 

Dispute and hate with unbecoming zeal ; 

To layman's passions make too strong appeal ; 

" Split nice the hair," bid followers do the same, 

With crimes debase august Jehovah's name. 

So seemed to him Theology, the child 

Of human wit, both heartless, mean, and wild ; 



68 THE LEARNED WOKLD. 

No more would he its contradictions trust, 
But dearest Martha^ long since passed to dust ! 
As now this field of doctrines he had swept, 
And often sighed, and oftener still had wept, 
No longer needing to inquire of them, 
He onward went for truth of other men. 



MATHEMATICS 



Pleased with the faith by angel's voice inspired, 
New fields our hero sought — ■ his eager mind desired ; 
Where basking in the radiant smiles of lore, 
He might his God through genius guide adore. 
Of thoughtful mood, he passed along a road, 
Where, 'mid some Elms a man of years abode : 



THE LEARNED WORLD. 69 

From early youth he had to Euclid given, 
His earnest mind — his heart to holy Heaven ! 
Before his gateway he with measured pace, 
Walked to and fro — and upward raised his face : 
Sir Truth unheeding in his pensive mood. 
This man of figures, as he walked, then stood. 
Against him came, when Learning halting, said — 
" Be careful, Sir — look up — not bow your head ; 
Look up, where through yon sweeping clear blue sky, 
The stars are bursting on the world's charmed eye — 
Behold in this a theme supreme and pure. 
The soul shall task when life's long sigh is o'er." 
Our hero startled by this lofty tone, 
Admiring listened to a taste — his own; 
Then seizing by the hand the scholar grave, 
He pressed it warmly as a power to save ! 



70 THE LEARNED WORLD. 

Awhile conversed then walked within the house, 
Where sat the children and the faithful spouse : 
Sir Truth, when he would please, n'er failed his aim, — 
His handsome person — ready wit o'er came ; 
' Tell me, good Sir," he said, " what thou hast learned j 
I will reward you — for all lore, I yearn; 
My soul in arms, doth daily seek to know. 
Since knowing not is fruitful most of woe." 
" Retire with me," the pedagogue replied. 
As wife and children now he closely eyed : 
" Humph,'" growled the wife, as by her husband passed, 
Into a room where instruments of brass, 
And black-board stood and curious maps and globes — 
Here paused our hero as he stumped his toes. 
" You are no Math'matician, Sir, I see. 
E'en by the careless way you bend your knee ; 



THE LEARNED AVORLD. 71 

No man of figures will ere stump his toes, 

By rule he steps, by rule he blows his nose ! 

By rules, by hard unyielding facts he thrives, 

And by Geometry at last he dies. 

He 's through and through but figures — e'en his hairs 

Are numbered carefully, so too his heirs ! 

He eats by number, works, and weds and sleeps, 

The world observes, and calls him ' very deep ;' 

Or, if you will ' long headed ' — full of eyes, 

And for this power he is feared, despised : 

Now, would you be a figure, through and through, 

Skilled in the science of ' twice two and two,' 

I am your friend — tho' friendship's but a name — 

False figures, Sir, I here this bond proclaim ; 

Gain is its end — a painful thought, indeed, 

I teach the science, whidh is all its creed.^' 



iM THE LEARNED WORLD. 

" Here scholar is a purse, 'tis filled with gold, 
Quick, give me that, to me you now have sold,'' 
Replied our hero with a flashing eye — 
" So as a beef, I must your knowledge buy : 
Well, well, all life is but a trade, I fear, 
All thoughts but selfish — smiles but bitter tear. 
Come pedagogue, pick up your purse and say — 
' Ob God be praised for sending fools this way — ' 
For am I else, who meekly bear a charge. 
For that prevision which true souls enlarge : 
Think you that God would take a fee ? ah, no ! 
Nor Socrates — to sordid trade the foe ! 
'Tis not that I begrudge thee gold — I hate 
To pay for that, which made a Csesar great — 
Which placed among the gods those ancient Greeks, 
Whose flaming tongues with power yet e'er speaks." 



THE LEARNED WORLD. 73 

" Hold, hold, impetuous and thoughtless youth," 

Returned the pedagogue — " You seek for truth ? 

Then listen well ! the hairs upon my head. 

Are white with age — my heart has often bled, 

Pierced by some friendship 1 had cherished well. 

And deemed a brother's words too soft to tell : 

"Wronged by mankind, with all my needs to meet, 

I teach to live — and live but to repeat : 

When o'er your head have passed e'en two score years 

You'll counsel less, heed more, perhaps, your fears ; 

I tell you, Sir, howe'er Romance may charm, 

Figures alone endure — alone forearm ; 

When in old age the grave before us lies, 

Romance has vanished — facts alone survives.' 

" I see, I see," returned our hero bold, 

"You said aright when I was bade ' to hold — ' 
7 



74 THE LEAKNED WOKLD. 

I am a giddy, careless, thoughtless boy. 
Let not, I pray, my senseless talk annoy ; 
Go on — I will with patient ear attend, 
Figures and facts my dreamy mood shall mend ; 
I'll be a man — I'll know exactest thought, 
I'll prize it dear, since dearly it is bought." 
" Be seated, Sir," rejoined the learned man, 
" While I unfold fair Number's mighty plan : 
Oh, Mathematics ! how my heart beats high. 
To see through thee the system of the sky — 
Fairest of Science ! in thy mighty folds, 
Truth's ocean calmly and unruffled rolls : 
Figures lie not — they lead not man astray. 
But guard his steps and note if they ' will pay.* 
E'en from the apple trees in childhood's book, 
(He counts with care and with so bright a look,) 



THE LEARNED "WORLD. 75 

Up through Arithmetic and Algebra, 
Till Trigonometry his steps shall bar, 
He ever has the guard of figure's power, 
Which maps the ocean and erects the tower, 
Guides through far space the planets round the sun, 
And notes that instant when e'en God begun ! 
For figures are but forms — He (form of forms) 
Is but a rule to which all thought conforms ! 
This then is Deity ! ask not ' where 's God? ' 
All matter answers, — motion is his rod — 
He waves it — Mathematics notes its curves. 
And figures forth the Deity in words ! 
All hail to thee, Pythagoras, all hail ! 
Thou first to man these faithful laws unveiled ; 
' The music of the spheres,' erst charmed thine ear, 
And oped the way for Science's proud career — 



76 THE LEARNED "VVOELD. 

Onward she strided till tlirough figures came, 
Truths so exact man won a God-like fame ! 
Measured the space the sun presideth o'er, 
And tracked the comets to space's distant shore, 
Timed with precision their return through years, 
Divesting man of his too ceaseless fears : 
Who shall deny to Mathematics pure, 
The noblest fame — as God it must endure ! 
The base of motion through the earth and sky. 
Through living tissue and the human eye. 
The fountain head of each instructive thought, 
With objects all it is most wisely fraught: 
It guides all art — it sways all action too. 
It governs wits and fools — their lives renew ; 
As electricity it ceaseless acts. 
Stupendous form of most stupendous facts ! 



THE LEARNED WORLD. 77 

It builds our houses, makes our shoes and knives, 

Procures our food and loving hateful wives ! 

For love is figure only — first of all — 

It caused creation and it caused the fall ; 

We cannot move, we cannot think apace, 

Without the circle of its matchless grace : 

Go where we will — do what soe'er we may, 

Swift follows Number with eternal day ! 

No darkness is where e'er the mind can see, 

The graceful movements of the figure three — 

Mount with Geometry those circling orbs, 

Whose mystic characters the soul absorbs ! 

By Galileo first brought to the view, 

Whose timid spirit threatening priests o'erthrew — 

Sad is that picture — genius turned from truths 

To live in ease — the scorn of age and youth ! 

7* 



78 THE LEAKNED "WORLD. 

How marked the contrast of a Peter, Paul, 
Who gave the truth their talent, substance all, 
While base Philosophy to falsehood bent, 
Denied the truth — of its fair speech repent ; 
Let none depart from Revelation's page, 
To worship man though gifted be the sage ; 
There is no guide more constant and more sure, 
Than Christ — no teachings nobler or more pure. 
Cast to the winds the knowledge born of man, 
And sacred writ would singly bless the land ! " 
" Bravo ! " Sir Truth exclaimed, " all hail to thee. 
Thou champion brave of Christianity — 
It is my love, my faith, my dearest hope, 
To my fond trusting heart the only Pope, 
The only father unto whom I bow, 
The only garland I bind on my brow ; 



THE LEAKNED WOKLD. 79 

Come to my breast, O, come and ever there, 

A true heart find, above, beyond despair — 

From out the sky came to my doubting soul 

The evidence of God — another world. 

Where sighs are hushed and music's waves prolong, 

Angelic praises and the seraph's song." 

" 'Tis well, 'tis well," the Math'matician said — 

" All ages have held converse with the dead, 

And many a broken heart — a morbid mind. 

Have drawn from thence as from a golden mine ; 

But what I teach no mystic strain allows ; 

My facts are angels, and my problems vows, 

My quantities lead up to Heaven's vales, 

My formulas — as Summer's fragrant gales ! 

-f- this and — that will equal all, 

Most worthy man since his unhappy fall — 



80 THE LEARNED WORLD. 

Had Mathematics exercised the mind, 

Of Eve and Adam — they would have inclined 

To virtue, and have saved from sin their race, 

Whose every epoch is but fell disgrace ! 

For number is the soul of God, alone 

'Tis Truth — His essence, action, and his throne ! 

Hail universal power ! not an art 

But regal Science, th' pride of genius' heart. 

From data limited, immediate, true. 

Results are figured boundless to the view : 

E'en as the laws of nature known, do blend — 

To selfsame point in thought and action tend — 

So Number in its own peculiar way 

Directs — all Science in their spheres obey ! 

It teacheth truest thought, Abstraction's power, 

The minutes, seconds, and the rolling hour — 



THE LEAKNED WOELD. 81 

Thus as a whole we view this noble field, 

Its rich luxuriance and its liberal yield ; 

Yet its two parts — the Abstract and Concrete^ 

Alone would man employ in pleasure sweet. 

Forth from the known the unknown proudly leaps, 

Through their relations — which the Concrete treats; 

While in the abstract form we simply learn, 

Of occult numbers through their numbers known; 

Hence are evolved from these two grand designs. 

The primary parts all accurate thought combines. 

The Concrete with the external world contends, 

Equates phenomena and facts defends : 

Mechanics and Geometry comprise. 

Its processes which frequently surprise — 

This stately power with precision moves, 

Whate'er it may assert it straightway proves. 



82 THE LEAKNED WORLD. 

The Calculus which from the simplest sums, 

Extends its grasp to reckon e'en the suns ! 

Combining loftiest analysis — 

And quantities which may unknown subsist, 

From th' indirectly known, tho' complicate 

May be relations, yet them truly state ! 

Where ends the Concrete^ th' Abstract takes its rise, 

And sweeps through earth and storms the azure skies. 

Mechanics and Geometry are based, 

Upon its Atlas form, its winning grace — 

But not dependent — from this force proceed 

The Positive — true Science'' s dearest creed ! 

Simple ideas, and abstract, softly flow — 

From this high method through which means we know: 

Thought Universal, too, thence wings its way, 

No dreams can darken and no doubts can stay. 



THE XEAKNED WORLD. 83 

What is equation ? in the Concrete — there 

It mostly thrives in forms surpassing fair ; 

It deals with fimctio7is — magnitudes compare, 

And equalize results with pleasing care ; 

But not so ever — there will be at times, 

Relations of equality not known 

To be equations of the same — disowned 

By keen analysis, which will not claim, 

To square the circle or equate the rain. 

Hence, to relate the Concrete to th' Abstract, 

Is boldly and incautiously to act. 

In those great questions which absorb the wit, 

(When taken by themselves — ) non plusing it I 

To be exact, we functions should define, 

As Abstract and Concrete — the first designed 

Alone to enter true Equation's forms, 



81 THE LEAKNED WORLD. 

Which power supreme, the loftiest work performs. 

To Algebra the duty is assigned, 

Equations to transform for th' studious mind, 

That it may see how the unknown proceeds, 

From what is known— from Number's changeless creeds! 

These formulas have values we must learn — 

Then to Arithmetic we fondly turn ; 

The values of the numbers sought appear, 

Through functions certain and explicit, clear. 

Of numbers given — but what these values are, 

Is now the question — pencil, slate, prepare, — 

Give way — Arithmetic moves proudly on — 

Dash following dash — 'tis solved — behold the sum! 

With quantities and their relations true, 

Deals Algebra and with unerring view ! 

Whilst keen Arithmetic their values prove — 



THE LEARNED WORLD. 85 

The best, the surest, most enduring love. 

In these a double Calculus we find — 

To functions one — to values one incline. 

Within the Concrete is with care reduced 

Those problems various, curious and profuse, 

Of both Geometry's, Mechanic's power, 

The two great basis whence arise the tower, 

Of that Philosophy, whence Nature seems, 

In all her ways as one who wildly dreams : 

This unity of forces does insure, 

That true precision which we love, adore, 

Gives to Philosophy the key to God, 

Unveils fair Nature from the sky to sod ! 

Geometry is Nature's truest love, 

A Science perfect, simple and approved ; 

Yet would it he, if Motion were unborn — 
8 



86 THE LEARNED WOELD. 

Boundless its scope, and chains, its silent scorn 
On it Meclianics leans, while its proud eye, 
With spirit sparkles, and on self rely ! 
It measures surfaces and volumes, lines — 
No fears engross it and no bound confines ! 
To decompose a right line figure, yields 
Tri-angles : — trigonometry reveals 
Their varied elements by their own powers — 
As light and love the sun imparts to flowers. 
Here following Mechanics comes apace 
With its phenomena, its action's grace ; 
It deals with motion only, not its cause. 
Makes use of but interprets not these laws ; 
It asks how forces simple, when combined, 
Give compound motion, it would have defined - 
In this, the data and the unknown parts — 



THE LEAENED •WORLD. 87 

Of all Mechanics are concealed — departs 
From thence those mighty schemes which lofty raise, 
The works of man to bear his Maker praise. 
The laws of Motion three resplendent souls, 
In perfect order to the world unfolds : 
First Kepler proved that, by a single force, 
All bodies equal move direct in course ; 
Next Newton — action and reaction saw — 
And gave to Science this important law : 
Viz : in proportion to their mass is lost 
By bodies moving bodies^ o' the given force, 
As much as bodies moved may gain ; and here 
Behold that axiom to mankind so dear : 
And lastly, Galileo^ with the crown 
Came boldly — and as meanly laid it down : 
He proved that when a system bodies held, 



88 THE LEARNED WOELD. 

By motion common to them all propelled — 
This action would not could not interfere, 
With that force special which in them appear — 
Proceed these motions as though none beside, 
With them the honors of proud Force divide : 
But for this Law, from end to end thro' space, 
Confusion, shame, would be on Nature's face ! 
Upon these principles so simple, few. 
Mechanics rests and genius sips their dew : 
From whence come Statics and Dynamics fair ; 
The first will Equilibrium declare. 
The last on motion and its forms attend — 
Both pledged to truth in truth alone they blend : 
Next Solids, Fluids, their department plead, 
Of whose just care the world has ever need. 
" Sir, you have spoken well," now, said the youth, 



THE LEARNED WORLD. 89 

" Surely thy Science is indeed the truth." 

" I would proceed, my friend, unto detail, 

But as you have the points, they should prevail: 

You see what number is ; if you may choose 

To trace its sweep, nor nothing of it lose, 

'Tis well — you will in Mathematics find. 

Strength for the heart, and pleasure for the mind : 

Rapture shall seize thee when with Newton's step, 

You mount with him, by Number's laws beset, 

Those awful heights whose boundless views inspire, 

The human sense with lofty pure desire ! 

Or, walk with Leibnitz through his function's field, 

Observe his processes which fiacts reveal — 

Or, with Lagrange proceed, whose lucid mind. 

With problems grappled of each varied kind. 

Archimedes then ponder — sweet delay — 
8* 



90 THE LEARNED WORLD. 

And mark the process from that early day ; 
Observe D'Alembert, who, to Statics gave, 
A law which time and patience, too, may save ; 
To Bernoulli and Varignon give praise, 
Who marked velocities ingenious ways. 
Forget not Poinset whose strange couples came, 
Unto Mechanics, as to earth the rain, 
Nor careless pass by TorricellVs claims, 
Maupertuis' powers and Tycho''s noble strains — 
The generous Kepler''s ardent soul revere, 
To Galileo'' s praise add mournful tear ! 
Then turning from these master minds afar. 
Cast now your eyes on our New England star — 
Old Harvard's guide, the earnest working Pierce^ 
Whose praises in this land shall never cease. 
Think too of those who in eternal Bond^ 



THE LEARNED WORLD. 91 

Look out on night from yon uprising ground — 

Whatever loves thou hast, old Harvard bear 

Near to thy heart, and foremost in thy care." 

" 1 will — by Heavens, I will ! " the youth exclaimed, 

" Thy Alma Mater shall protection claim : 

My soul expands so widely 'neath thy spell, 

I have not words my pure delight to tell, 

But, Sir, I will (as God my judge shall be,) 

Befriend a power that's nursed so fondly thee." 

" Thy hand, thy hand, dear Sir," the sage replied, 

(Tears in his eyes,) thy days shall peaceful glide. 

May God and Nature in harmonious whole, 

Impress, inspire, and adorn thy soul ! 

May fgures guard thee, and may Reason's beams, 

Imagination stay — its wild fond dreams, 

For Mathematics is the base of all — 



92 THE LEAKXED WOKLD. 

Which saves the man who else would surely fall ; 
Tt is life's starting point, its way, its end — 
Who, not of it, shall e'er presume contend ! 
Whate'er thou art if not in figures skilled, 
Thou'rt but the tool of some more subtle will, — 
A slave with all the spirit of a man, 
A misused object in Creation's plan ! " 
" I see, I see ! " exclaimed Sir Truth aroused, 
" I'll problems study, by your virtuous spouse! 
' Swear not at all,'. says Holy Writ, but I 
Have spoken — and by it shall live and die ! 
Farewell, good Sir, we soon may meet again, 
E'en then shall Mathematics o'er me reign. '^ 
Concluding, he at once passed from the house. 
Greeting with kindness the abstracted spouse : 
With leisure steps he walked delighted on — 



THE LEARNED "WORLD. 93 

And filled the air with his too happy song : 

Not far he travelled with an upturned eye, 

When said he, " Bowditch — an omission, — why ? " 

Thus thought the youth, when stamping on the ground. 

He spoke — " Alas, how rarely truth is found — 

That gushing truth from hate and envy free, 

Large hearted, self forgetful — Deity ! 

Bowditch ! unto thee I lowly bow, — 

1 ne'er thy genius have well proved till now ; 
No fairer name, no purer friend to truth. 

Our land can boast — the model for all youth ! 
Ah, would thy spirit from the curtained sky 
Might look on me, support me when I die : 
Amid such influences I would live, 
My hfe, my fortune, to their mission give ; 
For what on Earth can so delight a man, 



94 THE LEARNED WORLD. 

As serving God, developing his plan ! 

Riches are naught, if they be meanly held, — 

The bliss of truth can never be compelled ! " 

Thus spoke our hero, as he crossed a brook, 

And from a tree a ripe red apple took, 

He tost in air, exclaiming as it fell, 

" Thus up and down goes man with smile and knell, 

Who lives by falsehood, sneers at modest worth. 

And but affects the Heaven-exalting truth." 

Then passing from the road to 'midst some trees, 

He threw himself directly on his knees, 

In silent, deep, and earnest lengthy prayer. 

That God might guide him — we will leave him there. 



PHYSICS. 



Thus the meu 
From Nature's works can charm, with God himself 
Hold converse ; grow familiar day by day, 
With his conceptions, act upon his plan ; 
And form to His the relish of their souls ! 

Akekside. 



Come, Nature come, give us thy trusty hand, 
Guide us with Truth o'er rolling sea and land : 
Since first the human eye thy forms surveyed, 
Thou hast our passions and our motives swayed 
To thee in earliest times fair altars rise, 
And temples spacious pierced the marbled skies ! 



96 THE LEABNED WOKLD. 

Th' embowelled earth for thee its treasure yields, 
Which groves adorn, and rivers, smihng fields ; 
Thy sacred fires the vestal virgins guard ; 
Ceres thy grain, P'mona thy fruits award ; 
Neptune thy watery wastes in order keep. 
The mighty monarch of a mightier deep ! 
Thy varied powers as first observed by man, 
Had each a God appointed to command ; 
From thee religion took its earhest song, 
To thy fair temples smiling nations thronged ! 
Earth's mellow music pierced the vaulted sky, 
When 'woke Homeric lyre, that ne'er shall die ; 
And Hesiod wrote thy Gods and Goddess' birth, 
Their acts and Influence on the smiling earth. 
Thy worshippers from age to age have sung, 
Those stately strains thy earliest bards begun ; 



THE LEARNED WOKIiD. 97 

And whilst no more thy dreamy Gods are seen, 

The human heart delights in what has been ; 

The human mind, advanced, turns back its eye, 

In fond remembrance coupled with a sigh ! 

That gone, forever gone, is that young hour, 

When breathing forms seemed Nature's varied power : 

Ere Science swept the fond deceit away, 

The bliss of ignorance was perfect day ! 

Nature's fair secrets with her Gods reposed, 

To whom man bowed, and prayers and incense rose. 

But all is changed ! the march of time has cast 

The molten image down, and coined its brass ! 

The rivers run the same, the woods and flowers, 

Their odors breathe as in those earlier hours ; 

But ne'er is present now the ruling mind, 

In wood, or stone, believed to be divine ; 
9 



98 THE LEARNED WORLD. 

One God, alone, philosophy proclaims, 

And Christ that God in tenderest love explains ; 

His soul through nature pours its, vital heat, 

And all in Him with active pulses beat ! 

Dark superstition as the morning dew, 

'Fore Learning's light has fled our searching view: 

Science, fair science, boldly lifts its head, 

And proudly stands o'er ancient follies dead ; 

Th' empyrean waves within their starry bounds, 

Hath Science measured by its rules profound ; 

Th' " inconstant moon " once goddess of the night, 

By powerful lens is brought to nearer sight : 

Its frightful chasms and volcanic soil. 

Where birds sing not, nor human muscle toil, 

The pointed glass with clearest sight reveals, 

While o'er the thoughts a cold repulsion steals ; 



THE LEARNED WORLD. 9d 

The distant planets, suns to other worlds, 

The sweeping comets, nebulse unfolds : 

Through laughing numbers musical and sure, 

We enter space, its vast domains explore ! 

Attraction's force, Repulsion's counter will, 

The law of order patiently fulfil. 

Laws upon laws Astronomy disclose, 

Obedient nature never yet opposed ! 

Around and round in myriad circles roll, 

Its active matter easy of control ; 

And though its paths across each other lay, 

The awful mass un'peded keeps its way! 

Atoms to atoms cling electric bound. 

The whole to music whirls in space around ! 

As through the dance some graceful maid may glide, 

As some swift prow may cleave the playful tide. 



ASTRONOMY. 



Sir Truth, all anxious wisdom's steeps to climb, 

Hied him away Astronomer to find ; 

At length he came to where a cottage stood, 

Beside a thick impenetrable wood ; 

The woodbine graced the lowly cottage door, 

A well-kept garden lay in smiles before ; 

Sir Truth advanced, the knocker gently woke, 

When from within the scholar instant spoke ; 

The door was oped, he questioned Truth his need, 

In accent mild from all suspicion freed : 



THE LEARNED WORLD. 101 

" I come, kind Sir, to learn of you the way, 

Through yon bright blue, reflecting clear the day, 

I would thro' Learning's realms my steps direct, 

Know all that is, that undiscovered yet ! " 

The Scholar's deep, far-searching eye was placed. 

Full on the stranger's sad and thoughtful face — 

A moment paused — then with an earnest grasp 

Of stranger's hand, in both of his it claspped ; 

" Come in, come in," he said, in deep sweet tones, 

"A blockhead he who such as thee disowns ; 

My frugal fare, my bed and books are thine, 

If thou, perchance, to stay with me incHne ; 

I am alone, no wife nor children have. 

This dear old dog, who thrice my life has saved, 

Is all the friend within my cottage walls. 

Who loves me much and answers all my calls." 
9* 



102 THE LEARNED WORLD. 

" You n'er were married ? " questioned Truth amazed, 

" No Sir ! " replied the scholar, " nor engaged : 

My loves have been with Nature, in her arms 

I've tasted sweets beyond false woman's charms : 

My thoughts have been where twinkling stars invite, 

The solemn soul to sleepless studious night : 

Borne on the pinions of fair Figure's form, 

I measure space from eve till silent dawn ; 

Her secrets learn, explain her august power, 

And give to virtue each successive hour." 

A-S thus he spoke he stroked his ample beard. 

His moustache smoothed, his head imposing reared ; 

While to his side he drew fond Truth with care, 

And passed his fingers thro' his silken hair ; 

His graceful arm in undissembled trust. 

About him threw, as artists drape a bust : 



THE LEAKNED WOKLD. 103 

Thus closeted with Learning, Truth, in joy 
Accepts its kindness, feels again a boy ! 
Then questioned, listened, with a youthful zeal, 
To that which lore might now to him reveal, 
Who spoke with wondrous skill concise and clear, 
His noble knowledge of the starry sphere ; 
Reviewed with graphic power the march of time, 
The laws of fair Astronomy define ; 
Told how from step to step it forced its way, 
Thro' error dark, and persecution's day ; 
Before whose face foul superstition quailed. 
Nor longer man at sweeping comets paled, 
Nor feared eclipses, but with minds informed. 
Saw all things visible, to laws conformed, 
To final causes gave a deadly blow, 
God's power unveiled — and laid the scoffer low. 



104 THE LEARNED "WORLD. 

It taught us that beyond earth's orbit lies, 
A distance far, unpierced by human eyes ! 
Whose nearest star unmeasured must remain, 
By vaulting man, whose weakness is his shame I 
It taught us that the ancient's solid sky, 
Is not a mass of skillful masonry : 
That passing stars in silent accents tell. 
How boundless space where God and angels dwell ; 
That planets, (once in circles thought to move,) 
With each new phase, a circle new doth prove, 
Till epicycles came at lengtti to claim, 
From simple circles all their former fame ! 
Anon came Tycho, sweepmg error's shores, 
And with his facts far nobler truth explores ! 
Then Kepler soaring on the wings of pride. 
Spurned all the schools, and cast their lore aside ; 



THE LEAKNED WORLD. 105 

Unto the spring from whence all these had ta'en, 

Boldly he went, nor quaffed he there in vain : 

With Tycho's facts, at lofty Mars he gazed, 

And learned three laws all worthy human praise ! 

Now Newton's advent from the womb of time, 

Gave us a law the last and most sublime ! 

Which rules through Nature, up to Nature's cause, 

The God of Gods, the first of all his laws ! 

The Earth by Torson's balance then was weighed ; 

Of weight and heat, La Place thought all things made ; 

The noble Comte a like belief maintains. 

Whose love is truths his daily life proclaims." 

•'Well hast thou said,'' the guest delighted spoke, 

" No fairer light hath yet upon me broke — 

Go on, go on, good Sir, I love to hear 

Such words as thine, so full of kindly cheer.'* 



106 THE LEARNED WORLD. 

" Glad am I, friend," rejoined the bearded sage, 

* 

" To ope to thee the heavens glorious page, 

Since there, and there alone the soul can find, 

Bliss for the heart, and rapture for the mind.'' 

He paused, then stroked his beard, and spoke again, 

After the manner of his former strain. 

Of Galileo sung, who bore the hate, 

Of jealous Church and too obedient State ; 

Of Ptolomy discoursed, Copernicus, 

Of Tycho Brache and sighed o'er Neivton's dust, 

The learned Keplar's subtle laws explain. 

The various planets and their order name ; 

The weight of Comets and the stars 'mid day, 

The zodiac, nodes, the sweeping milky way ; 

The mural circle and the colored stars ; 

The varying moon with vapors thick surcharged ; 



THE LEARNED WOULD. 107 

Of latitude and longitude discourse, 

Of solar orbit, sun, and tidal force ; 

The action of the restless sea on land. 

The rings of Saturn and Orion's band ; 

To Sextant and Chronometer refer, 

The level notes, and twilight's softest stir, 

The brisk trade-winds which at equator meet. 

The earth's sphericity, air, light and heat. 

Its measurement dynamical explain, 

Barometer, thermometer, and rain ; 

To pendulum alludes and aberration, 

To gravity, to time, and to rotation ; 

The sun's diminished disc, its lessening heat, 

Which earth's sad ruin must in years complete — 

Naught but a ball of fearful ice and snow. 

Onward in darkness will it mournful go ! 



108 THE LEARNED WORLD. 

With rapture spoke of Herschel's sudden flight, 
From Music's lap to watch thro' silent night ; 
Unvail Uranus to the startled eye, 
And one by one new Satelites descry — 
How fourteen hours worked he on his glass 
Each fleet-winged day, nor ceased to break his fast, 
But as he toiled his loving daughter fed, 
Genius unconscious of the moments sped ; 
His telescope of four-and-forty feet, 
His eye engaged while hushed the world in sleep ; 
The earth so varying on whose crust he stood, 
Strangely opposed the dreamy stars he woo'd ! 
Unchanging as in Nature's morn they sung, 
And eastern Magi o'er their beauties hung; 
Look'd and adored ! believed the builder God ; 
To learn his works with ceaseless vigor plod ! 



THE LEARJTED WOKLD. 109 

The olden system of the Universe, 

In pleasing strains the scholar now rehearsed : 

Astrology explained — that ancient art, 

Which held unbounded sway o'er human heart ; 

Our future naming with its various needs — 

The past recounting with its sad misdeeds : 

He named it not a study worthy man, 

Since subtlest wits could not its truths command ; 

« PecuHar must be that laborious mind, 

"Who'd judge its merits, its award assign ; 

Yet if the stars in aught the earth control, 

Note well the contact with an earnest soul ; 

Leave not with fools an art so passing fair, 

But whilst we probe, of error let's beware ! 

Though Christianity condemns this lore, 

Aud " Sainted Luther " 'gainst its influence bore, 
10 



110 THE XEAKNED WORLD. 

He'd not oppose whate'er, perchance, might shed, 

Light o'er some wretch's sad and aching head. 

Astronomy his hfe engaged ; its truths 

His passions calmed, enlarged his narrow views : 

Foremost of science I 'twas his foremost pride, 

His holy love, he asked no fairer bride ; 

Yet naught of ill spake he of else which won. 

The love and study of bold Learning's son : 

Wherever truth might dwell the soul should there, 

In humblest trust with holy steps repair. 

This is the Science, Sir, I love, adore. 

It links to Heaven and purifies the pure ! " 

" Ob, noble Sage, I prize thy gracious thought, 

And it, alone, would me to thee have brought," 

Replied Sir Truth, in rapture's wildest strain. 

As th' scholar's hand he prcss'd and press'd again,- 



THE LEA.RNED WOULD. IH 

" But tell me is it clear unto thy view, 
That this pure science teaches life anew ? 
That when again to dust we have returned, 
As Vestals fires, the soul undimmed will burn ? 
I seek of knowledge confirmation strong. 
Of Christian faith, to which, Sir, I belong ; 
Does all your converse with the dreamy skies, 
This faith sustain, as skeptic, I despised ; 
Do you perceive in all its subtle laws, 
A fixed, a personal, controlling cause? 
.May not thro' chance have come this wondrous plan, 
A complicated vegetable — man ? " 

" Thou asketh, friend, what oft before was ask'd," 
Returned the sage, as hand of Truth he clasp'd ; 
'I'll answer thee as I before have spoke. 



112 THE LEARNED WOELD. 

And charge thee well each weighty word to note 
Order is not the child of thoughtless chance, 
Where'er 'tis seen there is intelligence ; 
Number is proof undoubted of a God, 
Whate'er his essence, and where'er abode ! 
The mighty matter rolling on through space, 
With perfect harmony, unrivall'd grace, 
Began its motion by no innate cause, 
A thinking soul produced its perfect laws ! 
The cause of which that august mind was born^ 
Is naught to man, if soul 's in Nature's form ! 
But see we there a boundless wit supreme. 
Death is no blight, futurity no dream : 
For unto us to whom 'tis given to see, 
la these grand works the skill of Deity, 
There is assurance that our souls will dwell, 



THE LEARNED WORLD. 113 

With Him at last in homes celestial : 

Were it not so, our minds would not discern 

His glory — for supremest knowledge yearn ; 

For one whose laws are perfect, ne'er would man 

Deny his cherished hopes, nor spurn his hand ; " 

" Thou dost the Christian faith believe ? " Truth spoke. 

As from his sweet abstraction he awoke ; 

"Yes, Sir, I think this lovely faith is true, 

Each skeptic's heart I would with it imbue," 

Replied the sage, his eyelids partial closed, 

" Thro' gentle Christ, the Father was disclosed ! 

'Twas needed for the minds too weak to read, 

In Nature's face the earliest Christian creed." 

♦' Thanks, thanks, thou noble sage ! " exclaimed Sir 

Truth, 

♦' Thy words have touched me as with th' wand of youth., 
10* 



114 THE LEARNED WOKLD. 

I feel all doubt dispersing, light increase, 

I feel that joy which comes of smiling peace ! 

Oh, as I wander on thro' Learning's field, 

May this fond peace become as firmest steel ! 

May each blessed door, e'en as thy cottage sill. 

See me but pass to be a Christian still ! 

Farewell, Philosopher, thy power I prize, 

And yet may I make study of the skies ; 

If but one darkened spirit I redeem, 

'Twould well repay my converse with the theme!" 

A shake of hands, a mutual look of love, 

And Truth replaced his serviceable glove, 

Strode from the cottage and proceeded on, 

To where in moonlight lay a sleeping pond : 

He stood beside its Heaven-reflecting face, 

And in its mirror th' starry circles trace ; 



THE LEARNED WORLD. 115 

His mind of pure astronomy was full, 

To else without its boundless reach was dull : 

Lost in the contemplation of eterne, 

In Rapture's arms with passion wild he burned : 

A weeping willow near the water's brink, 

Drew him beneath its waving leaves to think, 

And as his eye, bewildered, roamed the air, 

The drowsy God with watchful step was there. 

And soon in slumber cast his soaring soul, 

And safely held it in his mild control : 

There leave we him lulled by the night wind's sigh, 

'Till morning beams and wakes his peering eye. 

And whilst the time is passing let's review, 
Yon cottage's sage, sought only by a few. 
A selfish, vain, and churlish man was he. 



116 THE LEARNED AVORLD. 

With all his facts — profound philosophy ; 
Resentful, proud, he had acquired lore, 
To live respected, e'en tho' known as poor ; 
In youth abused by some coquetting wench, 
Expert in flummery, with manners French ! 
With heart dejected, and with Pride in tears, 
He fled the world, its jolities and jeers; 
Within this wood he built his cottage small, 
And dwelt with Nature, whom he sister called; 
Embraced astronomy with studious care. 
As hermit lived on scant and frugal fare : 
To those who came beneath his lowly roof. 
He kindly spoke, but oftener with reproof. 
He loved not man too well, but often scorned 
The friendly hand, and from his equals turned. 
If he, perchance, to one as scholar spoke, 



THE LEARNED WORLD. 117 

And bade the thirsting heart in learning hope ; 

Twas merest accident and not desire, 

In friendship's name to mingle friendship's fire ; 

Truth might have gone unto his door ofttimes, 

And heard less reason and still less of rhymes ; 

" 'Twas a chance shot," as marksmen often say, 

When hitting that they aimed at far away : 

He felt no interest in the passing world. 

Who named the sage, " a poor conceited churl : " 

His lengthy beard of grey, moustaches and hair. 

They laughed at heartily, and termed him " Bear : " 

His slow and sloven walk, his dress so mean, 

His rolling eye, and countenance serene, 

Some wicked wit to canvas placed so well, 

One scarce the portrait from the sage could tell ; 

The scholar all unconscious of this fame. 



118 THE LEARNED WORLD. 

Received one day the portrait with his name, 
And not for weeks succeeding the surprise, 
Was calm his passions, or were dry his eyes ; 

He swore and beat the air like madman wild, 
Himself wished dead, or once again a child; 
A thousand curses heaped he on the head 
Of his assailant, whom he wished was dead ; 
His oaths were horrid when his anger swayed, 
Nor days nor months their frequent usage stayed ; 
A learned ruffian he, yet wisely hid. 
With ease himself whene'er his fancy bid ; 
Could smile and charm, discourse with wondrous art, 
And play with skill the Christian scholar's part ; 
Yet brute was he whene'er this mood him pleased, 
And cursed the stars as he would damn disease. 
They vexed, perplexed, his ugly crabbed mind. 



THE LEARNED WOELD. 119 

Whate'er did that from him no quarter find ! 
Sir Truth, saw not the man^ the sage alone 
Engaged his mind, touched by his learned tone. 
'Twas well, since, had the mask he wore appeared, 
Sir Truth his converse might perchance have feared, 
Nor stopped to hear, but passing by his door, 
Foregone the pleasure of his matchless lore. 
Thus do we often through our daily life, 
Glean peace from out most active fields of strife. 
The good acquire e'en from the basest hearts, 
Whom interest sivays to play with care their parts. 
And thus, Sir Truth, came from " this Bear" to learn, 
Of Nature's laws, his recent faith confirmed. 



GEOGRAPHY. 



The blushing morn from out the arms of night, 
Had leaped all joyous beautiful and bright, 
Discovering Truth with firm and leisure step, 
Passing the fields the weeping dews had wet : 
A mountain reached he clambered to its steep — 
Afar rude Boreas rocked the restless deep ! 
There stood an aged man beside his hut, 
A knotty pine with rusty blade he cut : 
His hand was small and rough from hardy use, 
His eye was keen, his hair was gray, profuse. 



THE LEAKNED WORLD. 121 

About his neck he wore a leather band, 

His air as one who would not brook command. 

As Truth approached the hermit raised his head, 

Disclosed a face all bloodless as the dead ; 

Grief,hate,were there, and pride and passion fierce. 

Which Truth'' s keen eye with swift discernment pierced: 

To speak he ventured not, but passing by. 

To th' stranger bowed who deigned him no reply ; 

A muttering low was all Sir Truth could hear. 

Though quick each sound to catch his watchful ear: 

"A strange old fellow this," he softly said, 

" Than live a hermit better far be dead ; 

A noble head he has, a brilliant eye, 

A face so pale — there wit and wisdom lie ; 

I '11 feign deep thirst, I'll test his charity, 

A cup of water he may tender me ; 
11 



122 THE LEARNED WORLD. 

My thanks retui-ning I with farther word, 

Will strive to urge him from this mood absurd : " 

The hermit growled, then roughly he replied, 

" Tender's a spring, for thine own needs provide ; 

Many a year have I served such as thee, 

I would the world of all thy tribe were free : 

If I mistake not, Sir, you pass this way. 

To study Nature in her wild woods gay ; 

You would her mysteries solve, her maker know, 

While yet a slavish worm in spheres below." 

" First, patriarch, I would taste thy cooling spring, 

And then discourse with thee at once begin : " 

" Cursed be the fellow ! " muttered low the man 

" I'd snakes encounter ere his silky hand, 

A soft and tapering useless piece of flesh — 

E'en as some woman's, dainty, clean, and fresh ; • 



THE LEA.KNED WORLD. 123 

Well, Sir, your thirst allayed, what else your need, 

Since thirsty dogs may also want their feed ? " 

" Food I require ; " spoke with easy air 

Sir Truth, " and look to you for wholesome fare." 

•' Food ? ay ; " replied the hermit with a sneer, 

" Take yonder gun and track the bounding deer ; 

If you would eat you must to work repair ; 

No idlers shall my hut, or converse share ; 

For gun and ammunition you must pay. 

Cook your own food, and go your chosen way ; 

I've served mankind until PU serve no more. 

Unless my service shall increase my store : " 

" Nor gun, nor game, nor ammunition I, 

Would ask, kind Sir, thy friendship to supply ; " 

Returned the traveller with becoming pride, 

As he the morbid hermit closely eyed ; 



124 THE LEARNED WOKLD. 

" What would you then ? " enquired the aged man ; 

" What fare, I pray, do you of me demand ? " 

" Methinks I read within your wrinkled face, 

A mind by virtue and by learning graced ; 

Methinks I read in yon lone hut's desires, 

A heart consumed by thoughts' too constant fires," 

Returned Sir Truth with fair expressive brow, 

To which the hermit turned, admiring now. 

" Fellow ! " he cried, " whoever thou mayst be, 

'Tis sure I am thou'rt of no low degree ; 

Not one in thousands could discern as you, 

Beneath, my rudeness that known but to few ! 

Apart for years I've dwelt from selfish man, 

The only error in Jehovah's plan ! 

I rove from mountain unto mountain far, 

As circles in its course some lonesome star, 



THE LEAUNED WOULD. 125 

To day I'm here, tomorrow roam elsewhere, 

To change the scene and breathe a fresher air ! 

Through life a student in old age I weep. 

To know how little's known of truth's far sweep. 

We labor to enrich the ardent brain, 

Tho' plied with skill but partial lore retains ! 

The noblest mind which e'er the earth has blessed. 

For simplest facts is sorely oft distressed ! 

Refers, refers, thro' every passing day, 

And thus ly reference gets and keeps its sway : 

A saddened mind, contempt of strutting man. 

Drove me away from both his heart and hand ; 

His heart's a stone ! his hand a loathsome plague. 

His pledges worthless, his religion vague ; 

Parted I am from him and all his ways. 

For Nature ! thro' my few remaining days ; 
11* 



126 THE LEAENED WOKLD. 

With her 1 love to dwell, her strive to learn, 

list, vi^hile o'er her fairest page I turn : 

1 love thee not, yet, as thou hast a soul, 
Which probeth mine with an amazing troul, 
I will the food provide thou dost desire, 

And bid thee speak whene'er thy ear may tire : 
My theme shall be Geography ! the thought, 
By Strabo, Mela, and by Homer taught — 
By steps advancing from the classic age, 
'Till teemed with beauty its instructive page : 
'Till man uneasy with the hope of fame, 
Each spot surveyed, each inlet, island, main ! 
Be mine the task, to trace its gradual rise. 
The world unfolding through the unvailed skies. 

O, Sacred records ! thou, the earliest source, 
Whence learn we nations and their devious course, 



THE LEARNED WOULD. 127 

Which Nimrod noteth of Assyria's plain, 
(Anterior far to Grecian story vain,) 
Who founded Babylon by fame inspired, 
Agile of mind, and in the chace admired : 
'Tis here we trace the early pastoral life, 
The hunter's rovings, and the hunter's strife ; 
'Tis here we see the farmer first appear. 
To reap the harvest of the fruitful year : 
Our Sacred Narrative alone portrays. 
The gradual steps to commerce winding ways — 
Behold proud Tyre ! ruled by David's Son, 
Arrayed in glory — by her commerce won ; 
While yet imperial Rome in thatch arrayed, 
Knew not her Ca;sar with his conquering blade. 
The Gog and Magog from the distant north, 
Their roving bands with savage hearts cast forth, 



128 THE LEAKNED WORLD. 

All riding horses with tumultuous cry, 
Prepared to plunder, suffer, and to die ! 
Ophir and Tarshnish, and the teeming isles, 
With dazzling splendor haughty man beguiles ; 
Sheba, Dedan, and Ormuz loose their stores, 
Which o'er the world in rich profusion pours; 
Euphrates rolled its waters to the sea, 
By Haran, Eden, Ashur, and Canneh ; 
The world was thought to be a verdant plain, 
The skies its screen, which pillars vast sustain : 
Around in circles stars and comets turned, 
With fear beheld as steadily they burned. 
Within Herodotus' clear, limpid page, 
We learn the habits of that ruder age : 
Eratosthenes and Hipparchus bold. 
With labored care have traced the ancient world ; 



THE LEAKNED WOELD. 129 

And lastly Ptelomy made his survey, 
And fresher life to this fair field convey : 
He purged the science of its vast untruth, 
Gave it the strength and innocence of youth ! 
With Ptolemy the ancient history ends, 
The middle age begins and with it blends : 
As many errors marked his noble page, 
A zealous D'Anville in truth's cause engaged ; 
Reformed the map, increased anew its worth. 
The noble champion of the noblest truth ' 
"With iron hand the demon falsehood smote. 
Of ancient folUes and pretensions wrote. 
Geometry now measured all earth's parts ; 
Lead by its hand the ship o'er seas departs — 
From port to port, from shore to shore arrives, 
"With accurate step sweeps o'er the buoyant tides : 



130 THE LEARNED WORLD. 

How graceful are its curves from pole to pole, 

Upon which line the globe unconscious rolls ! 

At angles with the zenith, Nadir, see 

The hne which halves the rolling land and sea ! 

From this Equator latitudes proceed, 

Towards each pole in lessening length they speed : 

Where'er the fancy wills, that line may glide, 

Which east and west in longitudes divide : 

Th' apparent circle which bounds ocean's plain, 

(Where oft the sailor dreams of love and fame,) 

"We term horizon ; in the compass see, 

Its varied points adjusted to degree : 

How oft I've ' boxed it ' when a roguish boy, 

Most pleasing object of my childhood's joy ! 

As learning's mantle dropped from Greece and Rome, 

'Twas seized by Saracen to bless his home ; 



THE LEARNED WORIiD. 131 

Forth, from their burning, dazzling sands they leap, 

With heartless scimitars their foes defeat ; 

They fomided capitals, relit the lamp 

Of learning — and with splendor ruled their camp : 

'Twas Almamoun ! who, in the century nine, 

Protected Science with a love sublime ! 

'Twas Bagdad's Court geography assigned, 

The choicest study of the Arab mind ; 

Hence from her School went forth the proud survey, 

To India, Africa, and far Cathay 1 
All Europe yielded to its searching glance, 
And trembling stood before the Arab's lance I 
The daring Tartar stayed his dashing soul. 
When Ismael by in haughty triumph roll'd : 
Most fair its Balsams and its Tamarind tree, 
Its noble steed so graceful and so free, 



132 IHE LEARNED -VVOELD. 

Its Myrrh, its Senna, Coffee, and Aloes, 
Its airy dress which free and easy flows ; 
Its Mecca where so gloomy, dark, severe, 
The Moslem's faith in Moslem's life appear 1 
Upon the open plain the Arab's knife, 
Unpitying takes the wealthy traveller's life, 
But in his tent the stranger is secure, 
May share his meal beside his lowly door : 
Fierce is their pride, and deadly is their hate, 
The poor they shelter, but spare not estate ; 
Their prophet Mahomet in splendor lies, 
Where veiled Medina shuns observant skies : 
Not far removed is Zoroaster''s land. 
Where Xerxes governed with despotic hand ; 
The last in battle and the first in flight, 
His star propitious sat in rayless night ! 



THE LEARNED WOULD. 133 

Here rising 'neath the wand of magic art; 

A palace charms the eye and wins the heart : 

Persepohs ! this precious gem is thine ; 

guard the beauty of an art divine ; 

Let no lewd Thais some base hero urge, 

Thy gorgeous temple with the earth to merge; 

From Persia let the eye to India pass, 

In West behold Bo?nbay, in East Madras^ 

Where, the Carnatic's rough and rocky form, 

Defies the blasts from ocean's bosom borne — 

Where in the North, Calcutta lifts its head, 

Old England's pride, the timid Hindoos' dread ; 

From out a forest sprung, damp, sickly, wild, 

'Tis now dame fortune's fairest, happiest child ; 

Its Sandal wood, its Betel, Cocoa nut, 

Its thatched and frail and neatly gardened hut, 
12 



134 THE LEAKNED WORLD. 

Its Tiger — scourge of Asia and the Isles, 

Who sucks its victim's blood, and eating, smiles, 

Buries its head full in the reeking breast. 

And there with frightful growls lies down to rest ; 

Its countless diamonds with their peerless ray, 

Between Golconda and Orissa lay ; 

Its many temples rise to various gods ; 

To build a shrine the Hindoo ceaseless plods ! 

Benaires 'tis deemed saves all its motley dead. 

Religion's fount and learning'^ honor'd head : 

Within the North is Delia — here behold, 

The Hindoo's pride, bedecked with Hindoo gold : 

Secimdras limits close proud Akbar's tomb, 

Where flows the Jumna with a silent gloom : 

Off from its Southern coast Ceylon is placed. 

With snices fragrant, by Nepenthe's graced ; 



THE LEAKNED WOHI-D. 135 

The famous pitcher plant whicli thro' the day, 
Opes its frail buds, when hies at once away, 
Its liquid clear thro' night again supplied, — 
Thus Nature for its pitcher's needs provide : 
The childish native when he would have rain, 
Flees to the woods, Nepenthe's vessels drain ; 
So droughts oppose by fancy's airy wing, 
Which oft the rain in usual course may bring ; 
Such was the plant which Homer's Helen knew, 
"When her guests sad she caused to smile anew : 
Here groves of Cinnamon and flowers rare. 
With richest odors fill the wooing air ; 
The clove, the cardamon, Galangar rise. 
With fragrant breath to kiss the beamy skies ; 
The nutmeg, camphor and the ginger bloom. 
Whilst creeps the pepper, as the ivy plumed ; 



136 THE LEAKNED WOULD. 

Here dives the fisher for the valued pearl, 
Whose beauty wins the fairest maid, and churl: 
From India eastward, Thibet and China lay, 
Where Marco PoJo urged his daring way ; 
For twenty years and four thro' Asia's bounds, 
He fearless roamed itg rich secluded grounds ; 
Returning homeward was in prison thrown. 
Whilst dunces jeered, and sturdy genius frowned ; 
The comic wits his narrative assailed, 
And rudest mirth o'er virtue's son prevailed ! 
Here grows the tea, and here the cocoon thrives, 
And yoked to plow the slavish woman dies ! 
'Tis here the golden pheasant proudly treads, 
Its gorgeous plumage to the azure spreads; 
The lady fair with feet too small for use, 
Totters around the victim of abuse ! 



THE LEARNED WOKLD. 



137 



Here for a thousand miles the wall extends, 

O'er mountains, rivers, fruitful valleys, glens, 

The evidence of man's enduring might, 

When moved by wrong, or nerved by conscious right ', 

'Tis here the Junk ungainly, cleaves the wave, 

From port to port pursues a gainful trade : 

Here Canfon,on the Bocca Tigris casts, 

Its silks and teas, to earth's wide limits pass ; 

Here floating mansions rest upon the tide. 

In streets arranged — with comfort well supplied: 

Beyond this country, Tartary's plain extends, 

Siberia northward to the Arctic bends ; 

The warlike Tartars bear the battle's shock, 

As th' Alps unmoved, or as the ocean rock ! 

Well mounted on their dashing sinewy steeds, 

They charge the foe at fierce and topmost speed : 
12* 



138 THE LEARNED "VVORIiD. 

Yet n'er Siberia's barriers dared to scale ; 
The Russian first these craggy heights assailed ; 
Rich are the furs which thro' winter's clime, 
Will warmth insure, to cheerful mood incline : 
On Asia's soil the palm and date tree rise, 
The stately cedar sweeps the laughing skies ; 
Aleppo garden-girted soothes the mind, 
Palmyra's griefs to sadness will incline ; 
The church of th' Holy Sepulchre inspires, 
A warmer faith, more chaste and true desires;. 
The Mosque of Omar, and the Dead Sea awes, 
Where dies the fish and sinks the iron ores ; 
Where passing birds drop down upon its breast, 
And there in death attain their final rest ; 
Lugubrious rocks around in order lay, 
A frightful gloom has undisputed sway ; 



THE LEAKNED WORLD. 139 

'Tis here Jerusalem, the home of God, 

So dear to truth marks Asia's arid sod, 

'Tis here lies Bethlehem whose brilhant star, 

Drew the awed Magi from their homes afar, 

To look upon the word made flesh, the power, 

Whose mystic teachings guide the present hour ; 

'Tis here that Calvary lifts its hoary head, 

Where Christ for truth and hve and virtue bled. 

Where looman cast adown by weight of woe. 

Thro' Him her Saviour, came of peace to know ; 

With saddest tears she bathed his weary feet. 

And with her hair the holy act complete ; 

In woman most despised, was * faith ' revealed ; 

To hope and Heaven, the precious mystic seal ! 

Last at the cross, first at the silent tomb. 

Such faith as thine should strike the skeptic dumb : 



140 THE LEARNED WORLD. 

Oh Christ ! our father, and our trusty friend, 

Who loveth thee shall have a peaceful end ; 

All learning in thy mission is comprised, 

hove, faith a.Tid justice — what can be more wise ? 

The blatant punster and the classic fop, 

May by thy cross with jestings deign to stop, 

But they whose hearts are right, whose souls are fair. 

Will prostrate fall and tearful linger there ; 

For what but truth, as Nature's self most pure, 

Hung here derided by both rich and poor, 

What but the voice of God in human form. 

Which man had hoped for ages would be born. 

And when it came because not decked in gold, 

'Twas seized and rudely banished from the world ! 

Oh shame, eternal shame ! on human pride. 

By whose decree the gentle Saviour died ! 



THE LEARNED WORXD. 141 

Methinks I see his bleeding wounds, and hear 

His agony which freely drew the tear : 

Oh, rise, come forth, ye sons of earth — believe ! 

No more thyself with impious thoughts deceive. 

Know, in Judea on Mt. Calvary, 

God's word was smote with meanest mockery ; 

Take to thy breasts the records of its woe. 

And glean from them that peace which they bestow. 

Just off Cored! s coast three isled Japan, 
Exclusive spurns close fellowship with man ; 
Their laws as Draco's are in blood expressed. 
Deep are the sorrows of their people's breast ; 
In minerals rich and precious metals rare. 
Abounding plenty 'wards their jealous care. 
Within the sea which laves the China shore. 



142 THE LEARNED WORLD. 

Isles upon isles pour out their spicy store ; 
Sumatra near to fertile Java lays — 
In both kind nature fairest growth displays ; 
The Phillipines and Borneo liberal yield , 
From garden's limits and more open field ; 
Australia and New Zealand bound the whole, 
The farthest limits of the eastern world ! 
As standing on the shores of Bherings — see 
The close approach of Asia to the free ! 
Nearly they lock their arms in fond embrace, 
Confess the kindred of a common race. 

Turn we to Europe now ; her noble seas, 
Where inland commerce wooes the inland breeze ; 
Behold stern Russia 'mid her fearful snows, 
Of friends, so wary, watchful of her foes ; 



IHE LEARNED WORLD. 143 

Note her vast steppes and her leather famed. 
Her hemp and flax, sad Moscow's broken fane; 
Crushed Poland's sorrows, forced to serve a throne, 
Its pride rebellious, 'llegiance would disown : 
'Tis here the Cossack on his daring steed, 
The honor covets of some valiant deed : 
Close on her borders Turkey fearless lies. 
Whose Tartar spirit Russia's arms defies ; 
Abundant are its drugs and precious gums, 
Its figs delicious packed in tasty drums ; 
Sad are its harems where the Turk enjoys, 
A woman's love as child its many toys : 
Adjoining, Greece shorn of her former might, 
As yonder stars yet glimmer through the night 5 
Her Phidias lives still in the Parthenon^ 
The 'cropolis yet its fluted shafts adorn ; 



144 THE LEARNED WOKLD. 

Hymeftus still its honey stores unfold, 
Platea whispers of its chieftains bold ; 
Leuctra points to Sparta's fallen pride, 
Where haughty Greece her iron rule defied ! 
The shades of Helicon yet looketh down, 
In solemn silence on this sacred ground ; 
With fragrant shrubs displayed and browsing flocks, 
The Shepherd's pipe yet sounding 'mid its rocks : 
Beyond Lividia lies ! in art once famed ; 
Trophonius^ shrine now notes its fallen name ; 
The stream Mnemosyne, Lethe yet are there. 
To nurture earth, refresh the thirsty air ; 
Cheronea Westward by bleak Parnassus closed, 
Witnessed too oft the Greeks in arms opposed ; 
The fate of Hellas on this battle field, 
Trembling oft hung upon the battered shield ! 



IHE LEARNED WOKLD. 145 

Where broke the heart and fell the manly tear, 

As graced with death the patriots solemn bier ; 

Beside this mount the famous Delphi lay, 

Its temple gone ! dread time's too certain prey : 

No more in crowds deluded men repair, 

To bid the oracle their fates declare : 

The shrine has vanished ! a deep vale alone, 

O'er which Parnassus proudly sits enthroned, 

Points out the site where stood this awful power, 

The wisest feared in that romantic hour : 

Here flows Castalia 's fount — the poet's shrine, 

Where priestess' bathed to catch the thought divine ! 

Behold the noble plains of Thessaly ! 

Its noted horse ! the pass Thermopylae ! 

And ' high Olympus,' Ossa, Pelion there ; 

While Tempe's vale glides thro' these mountains fair : 
13 



146 THE LEARNED WORLD. 

'Tis Music's home ! to Greece the student turns, 
To roam her shores, behold her sacred urns : 
Westward — [tana's narrow strip of land, 
(By turns the fear, the hate, the love of man ' ) 
Bathed in the waters of its noble sea, 
So long enslaved, now struggles to be free ! 
At Rome — St. Peters, and the Coliseum, 
The arch of Constantine^ and Trajan's column — 
The Parthenon — to gods immortal raised ! 
Command our wonder, and deserve our praise : — 
The gardens, groves of Arno's gorgeous vale. 
Where Tuscan villas — beauty's forms, prevail, 
Where Florence ! by the Medici renowned, 
In classic splendor clothed in art profound. 
Upon the landscapes smile which girt the eye, 
That Nature, man, hath labored to supply. 



THE LEARNED WOELD. 147 

How fair is Naples ! with its graceful bay, 
Its villages and golden shores o' Baise, 
Where Cicero taught, Lucullus' palace rose, 
And Nero's lust fair woman chaste opposed! 
The Grotto del Cane^s too fatal breath, 
Whose mystic touch is swift and certain death ! 
The Posilippo mount where Virgil's tomb, 
In softest whispers points the common doom ; 
"Vesuvius belching forth her angry fires. 
Before which man with hasty step retires ! 
Pompeii, Herculaneum's unveiled domes. 
Its baths and temples, and its curious stones ; 
The turbid Tiler of the States of th' Church, 
Where reigns the Pope and stands the stately porch ; 
Fair Venice ! th' Adriatic's queen of yore. 
Sad pity claims, as once it moved to awe : 



148 THE liEAKNED WORLD. 

Hard by its shores is that eventful Isle, 
Where first Napoleon knevv^ a mother's smile; 
Fair Corsica ! what memories cling to thee, 
And Elba., near to fruitful Tuscany ; 
Northward the noble German forests stand, 
The haughty Alps and Lakes of Switzerland ! 
The Foe thro' Lomhardy sweeps on its way, 
With laughing fields in ambling softness play : 
Lucerne and Leman share a common fame, 
Fair Constance, Zurich, pastoral beauty claim ; 
Lugano, Como, Maggiore unite, 
The mountain's grandeur with the plains delight ! 
Tho' absent that deep stillness which prevail, 
With charm peculiar in the Alpine vale, 
Where frowning barriers rise in solemn form. 
To meet the fury of the heartless storm ! 



THE I,EAr.N"ED WORLD. 149 

Amid these heights the Chamois sprightly bounds, 

'Long frightful steeps, o'er deepest depths profound ; 

By th' hunter pressed, with sweeping, fearful leap, 

Him dashes down the rugged Alpine steep ! 

At Burglin, near. Tell gained the welcomed shore, 

Escaped the tyrants who pursued no more : 

Proud Austria bordering on this fairest land, 

Would to the Adriatic give command ! 

Her blood has ceaseless flowed in conquest's pride. 

By Spain and France and Italy defied ! 

France where is nursed the olive and the vine. 

Where wit flows spirited with luscious wine ; 

Spain where the spacious rude Alhambra brings. 

Vivid to view Granada's ancient kings : 

Northward is England, mistress of the seas ! 

Her noble ports, and parks, and stately trees : 
13* 



150 THE LEARNED WOULD. 

Though Dalies and Saxons have thy shores assailed, 

And Norman valor in its turn prevailed ; 

Bold the invader who would now demand, 

To place his foot upon thy island strand I 

About the Arctic Ocean partly lay, 

Finland, Lapland, Sweden, and Norway , 

Between the Baltic and the Northern Sea, 

Is Denmark placed ! where ruled the fierce Sweyne : 

From these wild regions at an earlier age, 

Came forth the hordes as tigers from their cage ! 

Fair Europe ravaged, e'en to Afric's shore ! 

The bloody tide of fiercest conquest bore ; 

This fruitful coast Phoenicians first explored, 

And next Sataspes, exiled Persian lord ; 

Then Hano dared the main — his sail unfurled, 

To learn the limits of this ruder world : 



THE LEAKNED WORLD. 151 

He founded cities and a brilliant name, 
Left on the scroll of too seductive fame ! 
By slow degrees all Africa was known, 
Beneath the sway of rising haughty Rome ! 
Amid the " mountains of the moon's " defiles, 
The waters flow which form the muddy Nile ; 
Passing tho' Nubia's brilliant fertile soil, 
Egypt bids bloom, and lightens Egypt's toil ; 
The Pyramids look down with solemn eye. 
As this stream winding, runs so darkly by ; 
The sphinx from out its arid whirling sands, 
(With its two temples), mute, observant stands; 
Returning Summer brings the fruitful flood, 
Whene'er it fails, then fails the usual food ! 
Here the frail Papyrus, Acacias rear. 
Their fragile forms to grace the vernal year; 



152 THE LEARNED WORLD. 

The date and fig-tree and the willow spread, 
Their leafy branches o'er the pilgrim's head ; 
*Tis here the sacred Ibis flaps its wings, 
And art and science formed its earliest springs ; 
From here passed Israel to the promised land, 
Thro' waters cleft by God's resistless hand ! 
On Afric's northern coast proud Carthage bore, 
The palm of greatness in her days of yore ; 
Degenerate Moors now hold this classic spot, 
Its former splendor is ignored, forgot ! 
Forward a-pace the great Sahara lies, 
Where, gulfed in sand the Arab tearless, dies; 
Here the oasis spreads its lively green. 
Where flowing gums and antelope are seen ; 
Where blooms the cassia, date, and Lotus tree, 
And wave their branches in the breezes free : 



THE XEARNED "WOKLD. 153 

These lonely isles amid this sea of sand, 

Will live the wonder and delight of man ! 

Between Cape Blanco and Good Hope no bay, 

Indents the shore, in sleeping beauty lay ; 

Its coast in even Unes the ocean meets. 

From Algiers North, to eastern Mozambique ; 

Its clannish negro to his fetiche true, 

With savage aspect meets the stranger's view ; 

Grotesque their dance, their music sharp and wild ; 

Their laugh is loud and artful is their smile ; 

The Hottentot^ more base than all of man, 

In thick grease cased is smoked from head to hand ; 

In tuffs irregular lay his hard coarse hair, 

As some beast loathesome is his savage air : 

Swift at the butchered sheep or ox he flies, 

With out stretched arms and fearful flashing eyes ; 



lo4 THE LEAKNED WORLD. 

With greedy soul the smoking entrails grasp, 
And to his beastly mouth the substance pass ! 
With accurate aim their poisoned arrows fly ; 
And loud the laugh to see their victims die : 
No people are so base as Afric's hordes, 
Whom Nature least her gracious gifts accords; 
No people need so much a master's hand, 
Their will to guide, their passions to command ! 
Cape Town upon the Southern shore aspires. 
To raise the negro, tame his base desires, 
Liberia strives with e'en a giant's might, 
From Afric's mind to raise the veil of night, 
Yet scanty is the labor's frail return, 
While fading hope prepares its graceful uru ! 

The Eastern hemisphere revealed to man. 
In Western seas he sought for fairer land : 



THE LEARNED WORXD. 155 

Columbus with his shallop dared the main, 

His mind intent upon imperial fame ! 

Of steady gaze towards the sunset fair, 

His hope was firm while other hearts despair ; 

At length Domingo's lofty peaks arise, 

Majestic lay against the pearly skies ; 

His dream fulfilled, his labors were ignored, 

Whilst others reaped his measure of reward ; 

In chains confined he was a captive brought. 

To Spain's intriguing and licentious court ; 

Released,but of authority deprived, 

With broken heart in sweet composure died : 

A-long the path his genius had defined, 

Europe, restless, poured in boisterous line — 
And fair America ! now teemed with men. 
Who filled its forests, roved its mountains, glen. 



156 THE LEARNED "WORLD. 

The Indian drove from out his hunting grounds, 

His lands laid waste, curtailed his ample bounds : 

Far to the North, and to the farthest South, 

In hopeful humor rush old age and youth ! 

La Plata's valleys, Massachusetts bay, 

Soon dwellings neat and useful arts display : 

As years roll in, the tide of life rolls on; 

And nations rise with anthems and with song ; 

A Washington inspired with patriot zeal, 

At England's armies thrust his valliant steel ; 

The fond tie cut that bound him to her breast. 

Bade tyrants tremble — tyranny down-cast ! 

A Cortez soaring on the wings of pride, 

His Spanish blade sheathed deep in Astec'sside ; 

Old Montezuma hurried from his halls, 

To perish proudly on his native walls ; 



THE LEARNED 'VrOKLD. 157 

Pizan-0 and Almagro seized Peru, 

The Inca's rule, with ruthless arms o'erthrew, 

But Heaven in vengeance of the hateful blow, 

To death gave o'er their foulest bodies low : 

So may it ever deal with faithless man, 

Who roams for plunder, robs whome'er he can ! 

In after years upon this golden strand. 

In freedom's name a Bolivar commands ; 

From Spanish rule and Spanish chains he raised 

Peruvian pride — and won freed Peru's praise ! 

As Hannibal — opposing Nature tamed. 

To aid his conquests and assert his fame ! 

Within the South, along the Atlantic shore, 

Are States which once Spain's yoke with patience bore; 

Until Castelli, at his country's grove, 

Plann'd the revolt, in arms successful moved : 
14 



158 THE LEARNED WORLD. 

Thus Spain and England in this new-found world, 

Bj' freedom's arm was back to Europe hurled ! 

Along the coast by the Pacific laved, 

The Andes' peaks hang o'er the Southern wave ; 

Here Cotopaxi lifts its haughty brow, 

Decked in tlie garland of unspotted snow ! 

Six hundred miles afar on ocean's tide, 

Its roar is heard, its fearful flame descried : 

The melting snow in raging torrents dash, 

Adown its sides with deafening, dismal crash ; 

Leaving unbared its brown and fiery head ; 

On which men look with pale, unuttered dread ; 

Issues repeated of its wasting flame. 

Pumice and lava into mountains frame : 

Its walls unsettled, tumbling down below, 

In frightful chaos make a fearful woe ! 



THE LEARNED WOKLD. 159 

Chimb'razo see — unsealed by mortal feet — 
Oh, dreary th' solitude o' its towering sleet ! 
The Himalaya rivals not its awe — 
Nor cones gigantic of this broken shore ! 
Humboldt approached the dizzy mountain height, 
'Till from his ears ran blood and dimm'd his sight : 
Awe-struck — he paused ! in Nature's presence stood, 
Repulsed and bleeding, emd of pensive mood ; 
Stayed there his step to Nature's might revere, 
And yield to God the homage of a tear- ! 
Not far from here the gentle Llama strays, 
Whose long soft hair to commerce tribute pays ; 
Not far from here the Condor sights its prey. 
The deer assails while on its mountain way ; 
And sitting proudly 'mid its native rocks. 
Both man and Nature daily scorns and mocks. 



160 THE LEARNED WOULD. 

Not far from here in Oaxaca's wilds, 

The sweet vanilla sheds its fragrant smiles ; 

Not far from here the soft Banana grows, 

From Nature's womb both gold and silver flows I 

Copper and diamonds, wealth uncounted lay, 

"Where Spanish blades for Spanish pride made way ; 

Far to the North the Rocky Mountains loom, 

In moonlight softness or the beams of noon ; 

Pouring their waters into distant seas. 

Which send in turn their salt and bracing breeze : 

Towards the West Nevada's golden soil. 

Repays the miner ricUy for his toil ; 

Towards the East the Mississippi glides, 

Pressed by Missouri's and Ohio's rise ; 

And there along the Atlantic seaboard lays, 

The Alleghany's slopes, its fields of maze ; 



THE LEARNED WOULD. 161 

Beneath these precincts is a wondrous cave, 

Where dripping waters curious forms have weaved : 

Within thfe North expand those noble Lakes, 

Whose crystal waters o'er Niagara breaks ; 

Farther on in solemn grandeur 'throned, 

New Hampshire's mounts erect their Alpine throne, 

And onward yet amid eternal snows ! 

The Arctic sea in solemn silence flows ! 

Hither the gallant Franklin forced his way, 

Fearless of death and modest of display ; 

Hither the noble Kane by hope inspired, 

Sought the fair prize a Franklin had desired ; 

Signs of a passage to the Northv/est shore. 

This voyage discerned, and Kane to death gave o'er ; 

Peace to his ashes, science daring friend ; 

Oh rough his life, but peaceful was its end.^ 
14* 



162 IHE LEARNED WORLD. 

Thus have I roved discursive o'er the globe, 

By fairest science in fair garments robed : 

May you, Sir, if 'tis learning true you seek, 

Find in these lessons something to repeat ; 

May you remember godlike is the power. 

Which measures earth and forms the fragile flower ; 

The Mathematics wielding with a force. 

That marks thro' space each rolling planets course ! 

The map creating where all nations lie, 

Minutely sketched to each inquiring eye : 

And if, perchance, you doubt a father's care, 

Think o'er Geography, and linger there ! 

Think if mere chance could form the human brain, 

To map this globe, give pathways to the main : 

Banish the thought as poison from your soul, 

That aught save God made this inspiring whole ! 



THE LEARNED WOKLD. 163 

Turn from the atheist with pity's tear, 

Deal with him kindly, be not e'er severe, 

Sad is his bosom to no Father see, 

In vast creations's stern immensity ! " 

Sir Truth charmed with the old man's easy strain, 

Could not his joy within himself contain ; 

But yielding to his impulse cried aloud, 

" Of such as you the world should e'er be proud ! 

I made no error when I named thee wise, 

Aright I read thy lofty brows and eyes, 

Aright I saw beneath thy manners rude, 

The thoughtful soul that had sweet Learning woo'd." 

" O, peace thou boaster !" cried the hermit shrill, 

"Thou read'st me — eh ! indeed ? and knowest my will ? 

Then get thee gone ! I've taught thee of the earth, 

Use well thy lore and know its valued worth ! 



164 THE LEARNED WORLD. 

Thou knowest ma ? ah, an old man's thoughts are deep, 

With cautious mind his own strict counsel keep ; 

Think not to read his eye, or lofty brow, 

Or more of him assuredly to know, 

Than this — he doubts all words, however fair, 

Mistrusts all knowledge, not obtained with care." 

" Is this, indeed, an old man's wisdom deep, 

Himself alone to trust — his secrets keep?" 

Returned Sir Truth, in melancholy tone, 

If so it be, I would old age disown ; 

Pray God to shield me from so dark an hour, 

When skies are wintry and portentious lower : " 

" Young man I " exclaimed the hermit with a sigh, 

" You know not what you say, so once was I ! 

The bloom was on my cheeks, hope swelled my heart, 

I forvvard looked to play some noble part ! 



IHE LSABXED WOKLD. 165 

But as my years rolled on, mankind opposed 

My every wish, and 'gainst my purpose rose ; 

This heart by Nature khrd, to wormwood changed, 

My mind, too trusting, took a different range ; 

To doubt was easy, to believe was vain, 

I hated man, nor trusted him again ; 

So may it be thy fate to learn betimes, 

How false is human thought, how false inclines ! 

Thou well mayst sorrow, and inquire whence came, 

On this fair earth contention's brutal reign : 

Oft have I thought upon this awful theme, 

Which led me humbled to the Christian scheme ; 

In Christ to put my trust, in reason frail. 

Confide with caution — its deceit unveil : " 

•• You are a Christian, then ? " returned Sir Truth, 

« 1 am," replied the hermit, " by my troth ! " 



166 THE LEARNED WOULD. 

" Think you that Christ is Nature's God, alone ? " 

Returned the youth, as o'er he rolled a stone : 

*' I think that Christ is a supernal power, 

Had being long ere Nature's early hour" ; 

Replied the hermit with a solemn eye, 

As upward gazed he at the mottled sky : 

" If Nature came not from his mighty hand, 

Ere it had birth he saw its wondrous plan ! 

B'fore Abr'ham was, our Lord all powers knew, 

Cause following cause his searching mind could view ! '■ 

" I, too, a Christian am ! " Sir Truth replied, 

" In this sweet faith may e'er my soul abide ; 

May never knowledge lead me to deny, 

The Christian's creed with which 1 now comply : 

When pain and constant anguish wring my brow. 

May I a Saviour's promised friendship know ; 



THE LEAKXED AVOELD. 167 

And when my body shall have ceased its breath, 

May [ arise to his pure life from death ! " 

" Well said, Avell said, good Sir! here, take my band, 

When I can serve thee, make of me demand ; " 

Rejoined the hermit, with a hearty will. 

As his large eyes with beamy tears enfill ; 

" Thou'll need thy faith thro' every hour of life, 

As thicken years so hardier grows the strife ! " 

I thank thee for thy treatment kind of me," 

Returned Sir Truth — " tis fairest charity ; 

And if, hereafter, I can e'er repay, 

By word, or deed, thy converse of to-day ; 

O, let thy welcomed draft be freely drawn. 

To serve, delights me, those who can inform : " 

The old man smiled, then took the stranger's hand, 

And as he clasped it, gave this fond command. 



168 THE XEAKNED WORLD. 

" My generous fellow, O, throughout thy life, 

Be chary of thy service and of strife ; 

And if again we e'er should chance to meet, 

Maturer years thy wisdom may complete ; 

And tho' as mine thy hair may not be gray, 

Thy lore shall be more melloio than thy day ; 

A thoughtful mind thou hast, and soon will learn 

Life's crooked ways, from man disheartened turn ; 

Then shall our minds with like experience plied. 

In happier concord near to each reside," 

The old man shook with cordial grasp Truth's hand, 

Whose pleasing manners he could not withstand, 

And as he saw him passing down the hill, 

Again his eyes with tears intrusive fill ! 

And when Sir Truth his last adieus had waved, 

Exclaimed, " God bless you boy — from sin be saved. 



ZOOLOGY. 



Onward he bounded with a merry heart, 

Thro' bush and brier, boggy road, and park ; 

His swelling bosom heaving with the brain, 

"With th' lightning charged of earnest th' scholar's gain ! 

Imagination swept his soaring soul, 

Each fact in fancy 's gentle lap unroll : 

He knew, or thought he knew life ''s varied plan, 

The laws of nature and the laws of man : 

An author ! Ay, an author he would be. 

To swell that class of human misery ! 

His mind was active and his heart was true, 

He sought in study all God's works to view : 
15 



170 THE LEARNED WORLD. 

Throughout the Universe of thought he'd roam, 
To cull its sweets and make its fame his own ; 
Ambition's fires through his being flamed, 
His happiest hope was that of deathless name ! 
Enwearied, dusty, meets he with a maid, 
"Who bore a basket where with grace were laid, 
Some finely speckled trout her hand had drawn, 
From stream near by which foliage thick adorned. 
He smiled ; she smiled ; he ventured then to speak, 
With pleasant words the handsome maid to greet : 
She laughed as he would joke, and rolled her eyes, 
Now to the earth, then upward to the skies ! 
Whilst he but smiled, because 't was scholar's way — 
The " vulgar laugh," he 'd oft heard learning say ; 
Yet was his smile of love ; it won her eye. 
Nor could she calm her bosom 's ecstasy ! 



THE LEARNED WORLD. 171 

Sir Truth her found to be a learned maid, 

And listened eager to each word she said. 

They jogf ed along with slow but steady pace, 

The full embodiment of human grace ; 

She pointed to her favorite, spreading trees, 

Which waved their branches in the careless breeze. 

Explained the laws of their innoxious life, 

Their sturdy value, winning beauty rife ; 

Her language chaste flowed as a rapid stream, 

Her charms Sir Truth well might from Martha ween 

Impelled by that mysterious power within, 

He kiss'd the maid,nor deemed the ventui'e sin. 

Backward she drew, but not in angry mood ; 

Her laughing eye spoke not the action rude : 

Nor, had Sir Truth assailed again her lips, 

Would she have blushed, or " fallen into fits ;" 



172 THE LEARNED WORLD. 

She was a woman gentle and most true, 
Nor e'er denied the gallant that his due j 
She loved a noble heart ; Sir Truth appeared 
To be a man — and manhood she revered ! 
As now they stand before the lattice gate, 
Which bounds the limits of her fine estate, 
"Where she amid her books alone resides, 
She begs Sh' Truth with her one day abide. 
He far too gallant to be urged to this, 
Clasps her warm hand and steals another kiss ; 
Enters with her through the old oaken door, 
Full at his ease the mansion's rooms explore. 
She bade him be at home — " do as he pleased," 
But not her lips too frequently to tease ; 
For tho',she said, her temper e'er was mild. 
She sometimes lost it now, — as when a child ; 



THE LEARNED WORLD. 173 

Nor could she promise to submissive be, 

If gallant knight continued to be free : 

Yet would she trust Sir Truth, she knew his brow, 

Too noble to permit an action low : 

A tidy servant shew him to a room, 

Where water, towels were, and needful broom ; 

His face he washed, his clothes from dust were freed, 

His mind refreshed, his limbs from aches relieved ; 

Down on the bed he laid his graceful form, 

And fell asleep, lulled by a passing storm, 

Which frequent rises on a summer's day, 

To clear the air and drive the heat away : 

He slept until came on the supper hour. 

And gathering twilight with its soothing power ; 

Forth from his room he step 'd adown the stairs, 

And came upon the hostess unawares, 
15* 



174 THE LEARNED ■WORLD. 

Who, in the garden, just before her door, 
Some flowers gathered as an offering poor, 
To her guest handsome as she could desire, 
Noble of soul — charged with ambition's fire ! 
He took the gift and then about her waist, 
His trembling arms with modest air he placed, 
And as he pressed her to his valiant side, 
Walked to the table with a hero's pride ; 
And there sat down each to the other near. 
That softest whispers might find ready ear : 
A dish of tea him served — he served her toast, 
And of her kindness made a hearty boast ; 
Swore by the stars above — " he'd n'er forget, 
The hour, the happy hour, in which they met : 
Heaven had blessed him with a fortune fair. 
To deck his path with flowers so rich and rare ; 



THE LEARNED WORLD. 175 

Whate'er his fate hereafter was to be, 

He 'd n'er forget her voice of sympathy." 

" Ah, lady sweet," Sir Truth, with feeling spoke, 

" Thy gentle worth in me has passion woke ; 

A pleasing sorrow might indeed be life. 

With one like thee to be my constant wife ; 

Yet do I fear 't is fated me to 'bide, 

On this fair earth without a loving guide ; 

A noble woman, who, heart of my heart, 

Would bear in honor her free chosen part ; 

0, say, fair maid, if thou .would'st have it so, 

If thou 'd attach to me so foul a woe ! " 

" No, no, my noble friend ! the hostess said, 

I 'd have thee win and wear the loveliest maid ; 

I 'd have thee happy as the days are long, 

Or, as the lark, with its so blithesome song; 



176 THE LEARNED WORLD. 

I 'd have thee learned, and I 'd have thee true, 
To every claim that is kind woman's due ; 
Yet do I sorrow, that thou would'st obtain, 
That love of me from which thou should'st refrain ; 
For I ne'er saw the man that I would wed, 
Though I might love, and mourn the lover, dead : 
List, while I tell thee something of my past, 
The hateful mould in which my life was cast : — 
While yet "just in my teens," my mind unformed, 
A scene within this room my senses stormed ! 
Prostrate I fell upon the oaken floor. 
Drenched with the flow of my dear mother's gore ; 
She sat where now you sit, as in her breast, 
("Where oft his head had found its only rest,) 
My furious father plunged a ruthless steel, 
Then in his own its reeking blade concealed. 



THE LEARNED WORLD. 177 

And fell in death beside his doting wife — 
With jealous mind, he forced a deadly strife : 
She loved but him, was true as heart could be, 
Yet he suspected — death ! was his decree ! 
Crushed was my soul at such a woeful sight, 
And o'er my hopes there came a rayless night ; 
I vowed a solemn vow to never wed, 
Since as my mother's might my blood be shed : 
I thought upon her virtues and my father's scorn, 
Whose wayward mind by jealous love was torn ; 
I said, if such is life, spare me the pain 
Of loving well, yet loving all in vain : 
Nor cursed I man — his passions but deplore, 
Nor thought of marriage, nor its sweet hopes more." 
" I mourn thy sorrows, and regi'et thy vow. 
And wonder much thou hast so fair a brow ; " 



178 THE LEARNED WORLD. 

Returned Sir Truth in gentlest accents clear. 

Trembling somewhat as they met her ear : 

" Grief such as thine oft clouds the pensive mind, 

The blooming cheek to paleness will incline ; 

Wrinkles will fuiTow, sadness sit enthroned, 

Where once were smiles and happiness alone ; 

But thou unmarked by any forms of grief. 

With blissful eye give others' pains relief; 

How can'st thou, with so deep a sorrow, seem 

With radiant hope, and sweetest bliss to beam ? " 

" It is ray art, good sir ; no human eye, 

Can my sad soul thro' my veiled face descry ; " 

Replied the hostess with a tender smile, 

" It is my study to mankind beguile : 

Make others happy, if not so myself, 

Tho' humble be their lot, and small their pelf; 



THE LEARNED WORLD. 179 

I know a cheerful face makes cheerful friends, 
And colors bright with easier process blends ; 
And you will find in every stage of life, 
The art of pleasing is the foe of strife ; 
And that howe'er your soul may rage at wrong, 
The face should wear the cheerfulness of song : 
This is my art, and thus with it I 've won 
Thy friendship, and, mayhap, thy love, so soon. 
Beware ! beware ! Sir Truth, as pass you on, 
In life 's rough journey, who you doat upon ; 
For many a woman, many a man may seem 
The sweet reality of thy fond dream; 
Yet wert thou bound in closest tie to them, 
Thy peace on earth would be a doubtful gem : 
Listen, and I will more at length explain 
Myself to thee, and not I trust in vain. 



180 THE LEARNED "WORXD. 

My parents dead, I left alone, resolved, 

(Since from love's sway by mine own act absolved ; 

To chose a guardian, turn unto my books. 

Here in the shade of these sweet woodland nooks ; 

You 've seen my library, 't is my chiefest joy, 

No mother loved so well her " darling boy ! " 

I fish, I read, I run, I shoot with ease, 

Trudge o'er the mountains, and I climb the trees ; 

Whate'er a man may do, that I may dare, 

Tho' soft my hand, my brow so passing fair ! 

These trout we 're eating I caught in a thrice, 

Of all the class, the nicest of the nice ; 

To-morrow, if thou '11 pass with me, I '11 shoot 

A mess of birds, thy palate keen will suit : 

"We '11 have champagne, and hock, we '11 merry be, 

"We'll crack our jokes in freest, boundless glee — 



THE LEARNED WORLD. 181 

Wilt stay ? Oh, say not, no ! I 'd have thee see, 

The clever shot I am erect, on knee ; 

No bird escapes on which my eye is bent, 

I get a mess ere yet the day's half spent : 

Now stay — you must ! I '11 shoot you if you go " — 

" Ah, lady ! that you did some time ago I " 

Whispered Sir Truth, as now he took the hand, 

Of that sweet one, and kissed its flesh so bland ; 

" Some time ago you sent through this poor breast, 

An eye-ball wliich hath much its peace distressed^ 

Yet pardon I the wound — to thy request 

I willing yield — with thee day further rest. 

Provided thou wilt me inform of laws, 

Pertaining to these trout — their life, their cause ! " 

" Their cause ! " replied the hostess, " by my soul, 

I knoweth not — nor nature can control ; 
16 



182 THE LEARNED WORLD. 

Yet, if thou would'st have me o' zoology 
Discourse, I '11 thy behest most willingly : 
It is a noble science ; and I love 
To speak its truths, by studious minds approved ; 
And so, too, must I love that generous man, 
The priest of Nature ! Agassiz's command ! 
Its form organic, he has well surveyed ! 
Aristotle scan'd, his happiest thoughts purveyed ; 
With Linneus pondered and with Cuvier dreamed, 
His wild genius seized with its sun-like gleam ; 
Culled from the German mind its ample stores, 
And laid them here upon these "Western shores ; 
As nature's temple is his spacious mind ! 
His heart as woman's, tender, loving, kind ; 
His labors ceaseless — boundless is his pride, 
In this fair study — fiats alone deride ! 



THE LEARNED WORLD. 183 

Unselfish and humane he turned from kings, 
To give his genius unto meaner things, 
To make his home among a people free. 
With nature's forms to twine our liberty ! 
Long may he live to grace our Northern clime, 
In death may marble bear his brow to time." 
" A noble man, indeed ; " replied Sir Truth, 
" Revered alike by age and thoughtful youth : 
Now, if it please you, lady fair, begin 
To teach zoology — to forms akin ! 
I 'd know from thee of all organic life, 
I 'd learning have as fond and faithful wife ! 
Since thou art wedded to thy books and gun, 
Nor trusteth man, but his false motves shun," 
" I trust not man ? " replied the hostess loud, 
" Oh, Sir, you do mistake, not that I vowed ; 



184 THE LEARNED WORLD. 

I think in man there 's much indeed that 's true, 
And I put trust most certainly in you ; 
Else, would I not have asked thee to my board, 
Nor e'en my hand to stranger's grasp accord. 
But while I trust in friendship's meaner thought, 
To love and wedlock I could not be brought. 
Now give thy ear to what I chance may say, 
Of nature's forms which science fair display ; 
Brief I shall be as th' favorite theme allows ; 
As thoughts in quick, or tardy current flows. 
I '11 cut the leaves of this inspiring book, 
Be thine the task thro' its pure page to look ; 
Be thine the task to cull its sweetest flowers, 
To lighten grief, ennoble weary hours. 
In three grand parts fair nature we behold — 
Vain man and beasts zoology unfold ! 



THE LEARNED WORLD. 185 

Two millions are the forms of life here ranged, 

"Which rove the globe in ever ceaseless change : 

Man crowns the whole of this stupendous frame, 

The noblest work which from Jehovah came ! 

Though woman I, yet will I lay him bare, 

Since women now their skill with men compare ; 

I say not that 't is wise — I only know. 

The startling fact, Sh- Truth, is clearly so. 

'Tis here the surgeon plys his noble skill, 

Physicians labor to ease human ill ; 

Man's stately form these make their special love, 

Their arduous labors oft too thankless prove ; 

Yet do they cling to steady purpose fair, 

To health insure and free and easy air ; 

Yet do they wield the knife, prescribe the pill. 

To God's designs and man's best hopes fulfil ! 

16* 



186 THE LEARNED WORLD. 



" Behold the surgeon ! as he stands beside " 
That female form, which, wretched harlot, died! 
Observe his blade with graceful motion pass, 
Through that fair cuticle — disgraced alas ! 
Behold his eye with keen and steady glance, 
On with the blade in playful mood advance ; 
Free runs the blood as he the veins divide, 
Removes the skin and opes the thorax wide. 
The wondrous skin by which the fat is veiled — 
At finger's end, the tapering, glossy nail. 
Nerveless, bloodless, the epidermis lies, 
Its pores unseen, all poisonous fumes defies ; 



THE LEARNED WORLD. 187 

And thus the metal-worker saves from death — 
Whose soul in sorrow draws its vital breath. 
From use it thickens and becometh tough, 
As in the blacksmith or the oarsman rough ; 
From friction guards the tender parts beneath, 
With moisture softens and preserves in health; 
It blunts sensation, but does not impair ; 
Else to the nerves unbearable the air ! 
The hands and feet which most by action waste, 
From birth are in a thicker scarf-skin placed ; 
How manifest no chance has ordered this, 
But that Great Mind which doeth naught amiss ! 
Lo, in the brute it forms the hardy hoof, — 
Of fair intention how direct the proof! 
Beneath this surface spreads the mucus thin, 
The pigment's color, softest covering ! 



188 THE LEARNED WORLD. 

Below the dermis, or the true-skin dense, 

In tissue firm, resistent, is dispensed. 

It is sensation's seat ! with care protects 

Subjacent parts ; the slightest touch detects ; 

'T is here that perspiration takes its rise — 

By health excited, with disease subsides. 

Vessels and nerves here spread their net-work fine, 

"With countless cells to membrane's fat confined : 

This subtile net-work so surprising fair, 

Spreads o'er a space 3,000 inches square ; 

Its under surface with its many cells, 

Joins not the membrane where the fat indwells ; 

Countless the nerves and vessels running here, 

Which on the tongue as papiUce appear ; 

Where sense is most acute, there they abound. 

The source of feeling and the cause of sound ! 



THE LEARNED WORLD. 189 

Sanctorious weighed each day for thirty years, 
Himself, his victuals, his refuse, and tears, 
And found five eighths of all we daily eat, 
Pass thro' the skin urged by internal heat ! 
Check not this vapor, let it freely flow. 
If you high spirits and sweet health would know ; 
Use oft the bath, keep free the breathing pores. 
The body's care is man's most holy cause ! 
Wear thro' the year the flannel, coarse or fine, 
To even temperature thy skin confine ! 
That both the nerves of motion, sense, may play, 
Their part un'mpeded thro' each passing day ; 
Else will these counter-messengers decline. 
To wait obedient on the brain and mind, 
And life expose to many a direful ill — 
E'en death itself may cast its fatal chill : 



190 THE LEARNED WORLD. 

The muscles now behold in sheaths disposed, 
Each separate muscle in its own enclose ; 
All intervening space by fat is filled, 
Which rounds the limb and shields it oft from ill. 
The bones are to the shining tendon placed, 
Whence man has motion, whence the athlete's grace. 
The surgeon now the skin aside hath lain. 
Attacks the muscles with artistic strain ; 
In fleshy bundles o'er the bones are pressed 
Four hundred, with their fibres numberless : 
In sheath membranous each from each reside, 
Formed of the membrane which the sheaths divide ; 
The bones expanding at their sides and heads, 
To these the shining tendon safely weds ; 
With strength immense these sinews are endowed, 
Give grace to motion, form the athlete proud ; 



THE LEARNED WORLD. 191 

Varying with the blood their color see; 
With it 't is dark, and pale where pale it be ; 
Its truest quality, contractile power ! 
Its stimulus, the nerves from hour to hour ; 
As ran the fibres, so will motion tend, 
Oblique are some, in circles some extend ; 
Some, as the feathers on " a gray goose quill,'* 
Their solid functions faithfully fulfil ; 
For cause especial its direction change — 
As note the lower jaw, its muscle's range ; 
A thin, strong tendon is here placed between, 
Two fleshy middles which to pass is seen ; 
In pulley placed, adapted to its use, 
With special care, benevolence profuse ; 
At angles right these to each other lay. 
And in two portions with effect they play : 



192 THE LEAENED WORLD. 

The eye-ball, fingers, and the toes declare, 
The master-piece of Grod most wondrous fair ! 
The muscle by the mil controlled, drives on 
The blood, and thus promotes secretion, 
Absorption and free respiration — 
Digestion and nutrition it excites. 
The mind immortal to sweet bliss invites ; 
Action it craves ; blood, blood it e'er demands, 
To waste repair, as rain the parched lands ; 
Use will its fibres thicken, force impart. 
And aid the functions of the tireless heart : 
The nerves adjusted to these sinewy threads, 
Are in proportion to their varied needs ; 
To action and to volume ever true, 
They bear the will in rapid movement through 
Oft does a muscle small more nerve require. 



THE LEARNED WORLD. 193 

Than those of double bulk could e'er desire ; 

These strings compress'd, the muscles cease to play, 

And man 's more helpless than his natal day. 

Each organ of these forces freely act, — 

The chest expands, the bowels move compact, 

To give the lungs inflated ample space — 

The air expelled, the ribs make downward pace ; 

Inward and upward are the bowels forced — 

And thus through life they run their narrow course. 

When many muscles for one movement join, 

Branches of nerves a common system coin ; 

Each fibre of each muscle is supplied, 

With filaments of nerve t' each fibre tied. 

One set conveys the influence of the mind ; 

Another to the muscle is confined — 



Bears its condition to the watchful brain, 
17 



194 THE LEAKNED WORLD. 

That it may know when action to ordain : 

"Without this sense, these cords would useless be, 

The shame, not glory of the Deity ! 

By this arrangement we observe the hand, 

The soft clay mould, the form on tight-rope stand ; 

The steel engraved, the juggler plays his tricks. 

The watch perfected with its steady ticks ; 

Guard well the nerves, let not excitement strain, 

These nimble post-boys of the stately brain ! 

Action undue enfeebles all the parts, 

As action dull a heaviness imparts : 

See in the gladiator well combined, 

The muscles' action with the nerves and mind — 

They are contrived for each things special care, 

The fish in ocean and the bird in air ! 



THE LEARNED WORLD. 195 

From off the body he has tak'n the head, 
Whose long black hair was once a fiery red ; 
Near by, besmeared with blood it mournful lays, 
And with its softness comely student plays. 
Ah, sad the passions which have there caroused — 
By love displeased, or angry pride aroused ; 
And sly the plans for life 's required staff, 
Conceived with sighs, a smile, or careless laugh ; 
Within the skull grooved for the devious veins. 
In lobes are placed the convoluted brains ; 
On either side in sections three they lie, 
With nervous fluid all the parts supply : 
A firm, tough membrane lines the skull concave ; 
While o'er the brain the pia mater's laid ; 
A net-work vascular which stays the blood, 
From tissue delicate, which else 't would flood : 



196 THE LEARNED "WORLD. 

Between these membranes is the arachnoid, 

As th' spider's web — disease oft here's employed ; 

'Tis here the mind enthroned amid the nerves, 

Its will declares which these white strings observes. 

Ah, happy they who free from every taint. 

Of morbid action here make no complaint ; 

Tho' but eccentric, may the parent be. 

To offspring's brain may chance insanity ! 

0, then beware, ye who unsound in this, 

In marriage seek imaginary bliss ; 

Thy love shall yield no fruit to glad thine eye ; 

Born are thy children but to waste and die : 

A healthy brain by nature must be given, 

If in our love we'd taste the sweets of heaven : 

As here more ample flows the globuled blood, 

To strength sustain we need nutritious food ; 



THE LEARNED WORLD. 197 

Then will the mind its subtle fluid pour, 

In full abundance into every pore ; 

The supple body charged with joyous life, 

Mocks at defeat, accepts the ceaseless strife, 

Repines no more, but fearless makes a stand. 

Where honor bides and leads with firmest hand. 

But if he 's wise he '11 not o'ertax the part, 

But exercise its force with studied art ; 

His labor, ease, alternate should transpire — 

Within due bounds should rest each fond desire ; 

No vaulting hope a task too great impose, 

But pride, ambition, wisely should dispose ; 

Then will the brain in concert with the soul, 

As nature fair in ceaseless pleasure roll ! " 
17* 



198 THE LEARNED WORLD 



" We next will note the ever active eye, 
Which to the soul a thousand charms supply ; 
Placed in the socket of the frontal skull, 
In some deep set, in others small and full, 
It wooes the light and sparkles with the mind. 
Reveals our virtues, vices dark define : 
Clothed in three coats, the first its muscles share, 
Which is but tendon, spread with skill so fair ; 
Within and joined thereto the Choroid see ; 
Of nervous texture, vascularity ; 
Within again the optic nerve behold — 
'Tis here the pulpy retina unfolds ; 



THE LEARNED WORLD. 199 

Between the cornea and crystalline lay, 
The aqueous humor in its capsule bay ; 
Behind this is the lens crystalline placed, 
And yet behind the vitreous humor trace. 
By membrane delicate and soft embraced. 
Between the portions of the aqueous part, 
The coloring iris various hues impart ; 
Its centre is the pupil which the light, 
Thro' its dark room to optic nerve invite : 
'T is here the image forms — the soul observes, 
Then with the tongue transmutes it into words : 
The eyelids are loose tissue 'neath the skin. 
Lined by the tunica, a membrane thin ; 
'T is here disease most frequent doth appear — 
From hence the gum formed by the partial tear. 
That flows to serve the tunica — to aid 



200 THE LEARNED WORLD. 

The august vision, which the eyelash shade ; 
These are the portions of the wondrous eye, 
In man's so strange, complex anatomy. 



Into three parts arranged, the ear perceive. 
Where sound is caught and music's charms received ; 
The part external, as a trumpet cast, 
The wavy air secures as by 't is past : 
Th' internal middle as a tube conveys, 
Towards the drum or tympanum the waves, 
Which in conjunction with th' eustachian's air, 
The varied sound unto the bones declare ; 



THE LEARNED WORLD. 201 

That takes it up and to the watery waste, 
O'er which the auditory nerve is placed, 
Spreads it along thro' all the winding ways, 
As with the sonl its sweet sensation plays ! 
'T is thus we hear ; how good indeed was He, 
Who made the ear for sound and melody ! 
The nose and mouth, the serai-circling jaw, 
Yields to the muscles by the nerves ruled o'er ; 
The cartilage and ligament prevail, 
From head to foot, the body's inner mail ! 
See thro' the neck the snake-like spine descend, 
By the medulla capp'd, with coccyx end ; 
The larnyx and oesophagus here lay. 
Air to the lungs, to th' stomach food convey. 
Forth from the heart the great aorta leaps, 
Its downward course with stately motion keeps ; 



202 THE LEARNED WORLD. 

Within the abdomen its branches spread, 
In various forms, by various tissues led ; 
Thro' every part they wind with faithful care, 
Its daily waste with daily toil repair; 
Within the groin the epigastric swells. 
Within the leg the ample ye/woraZ dwells, 
Which to the feet a genial warmth convey, 
And all the muscles in their course obey ; 
The mesenteries guard the bowels well, 
The radials, ulna, arras and hands propel ; 
Th' carotids to and jugular from the brain 
Deploy, and its integrity maintain. 
Within the thorax by the ribs defined 
The arteries run, the lungs and heart recline ; 
The pancreas, spleen, near to these organs 'bide, 
The midriff's line from thorax 's bounds divide: 



THE LEARNED WORLD. 203 

The stomach with its potent gastric juice, 

Strengthened by care, but weakened by abuse, 

Its chime unto the small intestines force, 

Where mixed with bile it onward takes its course : 

Now changed to chyle, a fluid rich and white, 

The lacteals, with the darkest blood unite. 

These vessels small that with the veins ally, 

Both life and strength to toiling man supply : 

The kidneys, and the bladder, and the womb, 

"Where all mankind have once been long entombed. 

Complete the viscera, leave but the bones. 

Whose piercing aches are marked by sighs and groans — 

The ghastly skeleton which checks our pride, 

When, flushed with health, we float o'er hfe's dark tide. 

This then is man ! the crown of creeping things. 

Whose aims most false to health gives fleetest wings ; 



204 THE LEARNED WORLD. 

Then to his aid he calls some Galen bolJ, 

To him entrusts his body and his soul. 

O'er-charged vi'iih pride which eager seeks command, 

Dyspepsia's gloom has on him placed its hand ; 

The ganglions 'flamed, the head congested throbs, 

The patient hopeless vents his grief in sobs ; 

Days come and go, months pass slow away, 

The pill is plied, still Galen holds his sway ; 

But death has fast this sighing victim now, 

And smiles in triumph at his ghastly brow : 

He travels here and there, plays boy again, 

But all his efforts to recruit are vain : 

Down on his bed at length he prostrate lies. 

And for his folly thus he early dies : 

Good Galen sighs, but what could Galen more — 

His pills and powders gave he by the score. 



THE LEAKNED WORLD. 205 

The stomach was a wreck, the brain involved, 

He could but stay the death, which now dissolved : 

Gone to that state where flesh may enter not, 

Nor Galen's drugs — the patient's soon forgot ! 

The doctor, called to wait on other forms, 

Yields to the pressure, to his art conforms : 

There raised in bed, a hectic female lays, 

With sunken eyes, expressionless and glazed ; 

Quick to her wrists his expert fingers fly ; 

The pulse so low, the sickly one must die : 

In love she trusted, love brought her to this — 

The senseless rapture, and the ardent kiss ; 

Now Galen leaves : when at his office door. 

He meets a wretch in flesh and pocket poor : 

In Venus' temple he had laid him down. 

By Phrene's arts and Phrene's ills was bound ; 
18 



206 THE LEARNED WORLD. 

Disease most loathsome had his bones assailed, 
Nor pills nor poisons e'er will him avail : 
Grood Galeti turns — with pitying eye he sighs, 
And wonders why — all lovers are not wise : 
He gives him tonics, and he bids him go, 
Wliile forth he steps to tend another's woe : 
And so from day to day, from year to year, 
His life 's a sigh, his pleasures but a tear ; 
Now called to this bed, then again to that — 
Both night and day near by he keeps his hat ! 
His labors ceaseless, which few patients prize, 
At length, exhausted, Galen gladly dies : 
If on this earth man labors as a God, 
Should be still loved when placed beneath the sod, 
The surgeon and the doctor I proclaim. 
Indeed, most worthy this immortal fame." 



THE LEARNED WORLD. 207 

" Well hast thou spoken," said Sir Truth amazed 

At this discourse — deserving well of praise ; 

For tho' he did perceive the hostess speech, 

When first they met, betokened one to teach ; 

So playful she, and oft so light of mind. 

Surprised he was, to hear her man define ; 

" Ah, lady," said he, " raising soft his eyes, 

" With cai-eless manners, thou 'rt indeed most wise ; 

How fair the fortune which my path illumed 

With thy discourse — suggestive is its bloom; 

Proceed, and as the swarthy Indian's ear, 

Is quick thro' distance, coming steps to hear, — 

So I will heed thy words and make them mine, 

Oh, fairest o' women, with a soul divine ! " 

" No, no ! Sir Truth, " I 'm not o' this favored class," 

Returned the hostess, " but mere country lass ; 



208 THE LEAENED WORLD. 

I love to know, and so with books I dwell — 
To some a Heaven, to some again a hell ! 
As read they fiction, or as read they fact, 
Wisely thro' lore, or yet more foolish act. 
Again, thy ear : the kingdom I would teach, 
Partakes of man through its extensive reach ; 
One central plan prevails ; the fish, the snail. 
Are both alike embraced within its pale. 
The vertebrate, articulate conform, 
lu part to mollusks, radeata's form : 
These are the various types of living things, 
In classes grouped as Nature's offerings. 
These various orders yet are undefined — 
Discussion, doubt, still vex the student's mind : 
Here are aiTanged God's creatures all with care, 
And sleepless science each with each compare : 



THE LEARNED "WORLD. 209 

Man, as the beast of prey, will flesh devour, 

His kinsman slay — abuse the trust of power ! 

As bird he sings and as the wily snake, 

He moves unseen as vengeance he may take ; 

E'en as the whale he spouts his passions wild, 

And as the fox, his ways are ways of guile ; 

He feasts on herbage as the sheep or deer. 

And as the crocodile, his heartless tear : 

As frog, he croaks o'er others' fell mishaps ; 

As greedy wolf, for others' gains combats ; 

As fish he swims, by larger fish consumed, 

As lizards, 'bout the grave-yard's stones presume ; 

As turtles, keeps he well within his shell, 

His head protrudes when only " all is well ; " 

As ass he brays, regardless of the sound. 

And deems his noise a wisdom most profound ! 
18* 



210 THE LEAEITED "WOEiD. 

And 33 the ape, he mimics on the stage, 
The vice and virtues of each passing age — 
Yet is he man ! to all these fonns allied, 
As they, with nerve, bone, muscle, blood supplied ; 
Yet is he man, and yet a brute the more, 
Offending reason when he should implore ! 
Within his body hath a soul been placed, 
By every good and every kindness graced ; 
By every evil too, it is assailed ; 
And vice intrudes where virtue had prevailed ! 
The brutal instincts, not the Eeason's force. 
Impel mankind towards a vicious course : 
Why is this, is it asked ? because the heart 
Neglects its culture, falsely plays its part : 
Let each one feel within his own dear breast. 
That peace hath there forever made its nest. 



THE LEARNED WORLD. 211 

And come what may of sorrow and despair, 
A light eternal will have settled there ; 
The soul sustained by its own central power. 
Will truthful be thro' life's unchanging hour ; 
The brutal passions and their brutal woe, 
Such lofty souls will ne'er, can never know : 
Now list attentive while unto thy ear, 
I speak those truths thou wilt be pleased to hear ; 
Then shall thy mind informed, in part aspire, 
To trace each life, its habits, and desire. 
Each creature to its own allotted sphere. 
By instinct guided closely doth adhere — 
Its kind produce, its chei'ished kind alone — 
Thus order reigns, and law assumes the throne ! 
Some are of structure complex, wondrous change. 
And bear to earth a wide and sweeping range ! 



212 THE LEARNED WORLD. 

Again, so simple is this life designed, 
We scarcely trace the evidence of mind ! 
Within the stratas fossils are discerned,* 
Our present embryos as kin confirmed, 
Thus do we prove this age linked to the past — 
Sweet Nature's oneness from the first to last ! 
Thus step by step we trace the plan of God, 
Whose skilful finger made the sky and sod ; 
Each type of life with its ascending scale, 
The sportive monkey, dog, and spouting whale. 
With twofold eye we should these objects view, 
As organs, functions, and as genius too ; 
The works of God beside him should be placed, 
That minds may see these glories face to face ! 

* This great truth is the result of Agassiz's many years of 
labor in this grand department of science. 



THE LEARNED WORLD. 213 

No pantheist then, no sneering atheist man, 
But God's best thought, enraptured with his plan ! 
Between this kingdom, and the shrubs and trees, 
A similar law their birth and growth decrees : j 
Within the roots the stomach we perceive, 
Within the sap the blood, the lungs the leaves, 
The trunk as bowels, and the branches veins, 
The bark as skin, which layers soft contains — 
These from the seed in their own order spring, 
As man is bora, or as the meanest thing ; 
Maturing, they both late and early die, 
Mourned by the sod, or by the night wind's sigh : 
On their produce the animals may thrive, 
And in their turn from these is life derived. 
Each formed for each a mutual purpose serve. 
To smiling earth its aspect fair preserve. 



214 THE LEARNED WORLD. 

The principle of life no student kens, 
Beyond the egg the vision ne'er extends — 
They singly or by thousands oft are laid ; 
The debt of Nature then and there is paid. 
As flowers the plant, so ovulation is, 
And pairing season of the gayest bliss ; 
The song is sweeter then, attire more bright, 
All nature seems to beam with copious light ; 
The fish's color takes a deeper hue, 
Seem breathing things their life to live anew. 
"Within the ovary the yolk behold ! 
Within the overduct the white it folds. 
Whence passing out into the cooling air, 
The shell asserts its due proportions fair ; 
The yolk within the membrane soon assumes. 
An aspect new — grows pale and thin as fumes ; 



THE LEARNED WORLD. 215 

Through various changes into spheres divides, 
Which now dissolving th' germ or dot contrives, 
From th' middle of the yolk to gain its top, 
And there a breathing thing becomes this drop. 
By turns the organs in their order grow, 
The yolk absorbed, the shell is fractured now — 
Forth steps the animal of land or seas. 
To run its course in health or fell disease ; 
This is life's progress, from vain man to fly. 
Created only but to grow and die 1 
Most complex creatures liave the tissue fair, 
Descend the scale we find less beauty there : 
This is our knowledge of the birth of breath. 
It comes mysterious, goes in mystic death ! 
Ah, could we look beyond this narrow view, 
With subtile wit the cause of cause pursue, 



216 THE LEARNED WORLD. 

We should attain that majesty of mind, 

"Which God ennobles 'hove all human kind : 

This secret we may never chance to learn, 

With His own cause sublime, it is intern ! 

To hope, to dare to think, we shall acquire, 

Creation's spring ! is blasphemous desire ! 

Oh, pigmy man, check, check thy soaring pride, 

Within thy proper sphere of thought abide — 

The cause of all things is the germ of God ! 

'T is life ! we know no more ; then cease to plod, 

Cease to divine who made that germ of germs, 

But life revere and humbly 'bide its terms : 

Act well thy part, preserve a conscience pure, 

And Christ's sweet love will each sweet peace secure. 

By buds some Infusoria are born, 

By fisures some increase — divided form ! 



THE LEARNED WORLD. 217 

The offspring as the parent doth appear, 
In all its parts — throughout its full career. 
Thus do the salamanders, lizards mend 
Their tails and heads, the spiders, legs extend. 
Crabs, claws renew, and man regains his skin, 
Worms, polyps, rise from parts cut e'er so thin ; 
There are that float in chain-like form on th' tide. 
Which breed by turns — in graceful groups allied ; 
Each lays its egg, a little mollusk yields, 
By buds increasing these extended fields ; 
They in their turn bring forth their fragile kind, 
And thus the chain complete, the whole combine. 
As winged moth from the cocoon proceeds, 
The butterfly its chrysalis succeeds ; 
The frog the tadpole, with its tail and gills, 
Th' musquito worm — so each their law fulfills : 
All, all is change, where'er we turn we see, 



218 THE LEAKNED WORLD. 

No rest, but motion, motion, energy ! 

Near all possess each sense, but not entire, 

Some hear thro' legs, and some thro' sides respire ; 

Thro' stalks some see, and others thro' the back, 

Some hear thro' crystals, some clear vision lack ! 

In mammals, birds, and reptiles voice appears, 

Which sound produce and Natui'e's sadness cheers ! 

The buz of bee is but vibrating wings — 

As from sweet flower to flower it blithesome springs ; 

The locust's grating shriek at evening's hour, 

Is but the legs and wings 'neath friction's power. 

The tell-tale call of katy-did is made, 

By covered wings against each other laid ! 

But for these sounds Creation would be dumb, 

Life but a sigh, and energy benumbed ! 

Dismal as in that age e'er yet the sea. 

From its dark empire bade the land be free ! 



THE LEARNED WORLD. 219 

To rise and kiss the sun, and fair to bloom, 
Unvvet by tear, unbroken by a tomb ! 
"When on its fertile plains new creatures came, 
Instinct alone held undivided reign ; 
By it the spider spins, its net is spread, 
The leopard waits his prey, ants tend their dead! 
By it the squirrel lays in winter's store, 
The lee forecasts, observes sweet order's law, 
The tailor-bird works into thread the wool, 
And with its beak the leaves together pull. 
Its nest to serve : the fiery hang-bird builds, 
On twigs secluded which its offspring shields. 
The humming-bird amid the mossy boughs 
Its nest with lichen and with down endows ; 
The Philipemus to those twigs incline. 
Which o'er the water gracefully decline, 



220 THE LEARNED WORLD. 

Their nest with grass is thatched, a tube its door 
Defending, and at mouth wove loosely o'er ; 
These fibres falling with the weight of foe, 
Protect the young till forth they blithesome go : 
The jarger gulls pursue, till from their crop, 
Wearied with iiight, the cherished prey is drop'd ; 
Ants war upon the weak, their young acquire, 
Bear them away enslaved to their desire ; 
By instinct, dogs their master know and love, 
Babes take the teat, so mates the cooing dove ; 
By reason man and man alone can rise. 
To know himself and map the earth and skies ; 
Look through all Nature and survey her laws. 
Observe effects and speculate of cause ! " 
" "Well is thy speech ; " Sir Truih then turning said, 
As from the maid was bent his classic head, 



THE LEAKNED WORLD. 221 

Engaged his eye with bright and fragrant flower 

Which stood near by, yet moist with recent shower ; 

" "Well is thy speech, I shall much care bestow, 

On these fair forms whose habits I would know ; 

Throughout the kingdom shall my eyes be cast ; 

Silurian rocks alone shall bound the past, 

I'll delve and dig until within my soul, 

Is placed in order, this harmonious whole ! " 

" Ah, sir, you scarcely v/een," replied the maid, 

" How Nature baffles, genius step is stayed ! 

Think of the mind from Aristotle's day, 

In research wasted — thrown as 't were away ! 

On this one object you would hence achieve, 

By fancy's energy and hope deceived ; 

0, tliiiik how false has Linneus' labors proved, 

How Cuvier erred, by noblest passion moved ! 
19* 



i 



222 THE LEARNED WORLD. 

Within this field of thought God's mighty plans, 

Would we disclose, a wit as His demands ! 

We should not hope to penetrate the veil, 

And trace his works in all their vast detail ; 

If we can learn enough to prove a God, 

Here should we rest — mere creatures of the sod." 

" Tliat I approve ! " remarked Sir Truth with zest, 

" No false ambition shall bestir my breast ; 

I feel, I feel how mad that mind must be, 

Who 'd grasp creation — measure deity ! 

No, no, the wish is impious — low I bow, 

To those deep secrets pride would dare to know ; 

A Father's love — a Father's tender care, 

Is writ in earth, the ocean and the air, 

This being true, all other truth must blend, 

And man as Nature triumph in the end ! 



THE LEARNED WORLD. 223 

Contented I shall be to gather here, 
The sweets of science, sorrow's limpid tear ; 
Contented wait whilst reading what I can, 
Of God in Nature, and of truth in man ! " 
" Of truth in man ! " the maiden fair, exclaimed, 
" Read you that, sir, the token of his name ? " 
" Yes, lady, yes I " Sir Truth at once returned, 
As beat his heart, as his fair temples burned ; 
" In man I read the wish to be divine ' — 
He *11 more to virtue than to sin incline ; 
Whene'er his birth with Nature's perfect law 
Conforms, he seeks the right, protects the poor ! 
But reckless men will reckless seed impart. 
To curse the world and break the tender heart." 
" Aye, sir ; so read I him ! " the hostess spoke, 
As with her hand her glossy hair she stroked ; 



224 THE LEARNED -WORLD. 

" The love of truth is native to the mind — 
Go to his breast 't will throb with impulse kind ; 
The wish for power and the strife for fame, 
Pervades his nature and befouls his name I 
This, this alone, his peace and honor wreck, 
His progress mocks, his many virtues check : 
Had he the will himself to well control, 
No thoughts would darken his aspiring soul ; 
No act of meanness would his life debase, 
Both form and feature, sweet perpetual grace ! 
He craves too oft what here he may not gain, 
A peaceful conscience and a perfect fame ! 
Some few there are who may this bliss enjoy. 
But pride hath less of virtue than alloy ! 
Throughout the ranks of man who dares aspire. 
Through mazy falsehood and ambition's fire. 



THE LEARNED WORLD. 225 

May lose his way, or burn with fiendish zeal, 

Abuse his nature, th' God within conceal ! 

Thus millions fall, who blight the earth with sin, 

Impelled by pride, in pride their course begin ; 

Yet who, who, so penitent as man, 

When musing o'er his false, defeated plans ; 

Who feels the crushing weight of foul misdeeds 

As he, or for sweet mercy sterner pleads ? 

Then is he not the foremost of the earth, 

Best thought of God, for high command his birth ! " 

" 'T is even so ; " replied delighted Truth, 

" These thoughts, so fair, shall make eternal youth ; 

For who has faith in man, in God confides, 

And from this spring unceasing love derives ; 

And love makes young, and youth 's fragrant bloom, 

O'er age extended wide dispels its gloom." 



226 THE LEARNED WORLD. 

"Yes, yes, Sir Tnith" rejoined the hostess loud, 

" "With faith in God life has no dreary cloud ; 

But through its labyrinths of care and woe, 

The trustful heart will bravely onward go ; 

Until this mortal shall immortal be, 

And man with Christ from false conception 's free : 

Ah, happy time ! what bliss, in fancy's eye. 

To view in death the pleasure 'tis to die." 

" Ah, yes ! " exclaimed Sir Truth, " who would abide, 

To float for aye upon earth's inky tide ; 

Who would not pass with all things to decay. 

To rise more perfect to a clearer day ! 

Not I, sweet one ! in all I see of love, 

I know the measure is tenfold above ; 

And I would hie me to its blithesome spheres, 

Where nobler visions, and purer converse cheers." 



THE LEARNED WORLD. 227 

" Bless thy dear soul ; " the maiden spoke and rose 
Towards Sir Truth,his neck her arms enclose; — 
" I kiss thy brow, most noble of this earth, 
And science yet shall reverence thy birth 1 
Yet will thy genius soaring on its wing, 
Unnumbered truths to light more clear shall bring ; 
Yet will thy worth as modest as the twig, 
Unfold as th' tree from out its lowly sprig. 
May Heaven aid thy purpose to attain 
Each fact of science — how and whence it came. 
But few, Sir Truth, are gifted to behold. 
The stores so vast which learning's fields unfold ! 
They, they alone, by God's especial grace. 
Have power all nature thro' her bounds to trace I 
Oh, think how burdensome to most the view. 
Of simple daily cares, they sad pursue ; 



228 THE LEARNED \yORLD. 

Think how the brain of myriad numbers fails 

In partial science — oft will genius quail ! 

"What strength then must that daring soul command, 

"Whose eye would peer through every sea and land ; 

The method grasp of grand creation's laws, 

Till reached their throne, no momentary pause ! 

Come, let us walk within the garden near, 

"Where pensive oft I 've shed abstraction's teai', 

And I '11 conclude what I may have to say, 

Of breathing forms thro' Nature's teeming way." 

Sir Truth arose and with his arms embraced 

The learned hostess with a pressure chaste. 

Then on her sparkling eyes he cast his own. 

And kissed her cheeks from whence the blush had flown. 

Forth in the balmy air they urged their steps, 

The moon shone brightly, and about the skeps. 



THE LEARNED WORLD. 229 

Where yet the golden corn unemptied lay, 

Bespoke the plough-boy given to delay. 

" To every creature is the means applied, 

Whence is their food of wholesome kind derived : " 

Continued now the hostess, with a smile, 

As round her waste Truth held his arm the while ; 

" The oyster when it would entrap its prey, 

Opes wide its shell as watchful it may lay ; * 

Until within its grasp some object glides. 

Then shuts its shell secure in its supplies ; 

The cuttle-fish with arms above its mouth, 

And ranging suckers urges on its growth ; 

The rasp-like tongue of moUusk pierce the shell 

Of various fish that in their waters dwell ; 

The insects, food by similar means obtain, 

The leech its nourishment by vacuum gains ; 

20 



230 THE LEARNED WORLD. 

The microscopic animals have hairs, 

Around their mouth they wave in many pairs ; 

The currents these produce bring near to each, 

Minuter creatures they make haste to reach : 

The tongue of woodpeckers transfer from hole, 

The insect unawares — consumes it whole ; 

So with this member tipped with gluten soft, 

Camelions flies pursue and catch them oft ; 

The elephant whose tusk and neck obtrude. 

Serves well his mouth with lengthy nose so rade ; 

It guards the creature in an evil hour. 

And nerved by passion wields tremendous power ! 

'T is curious to note digestion's course, 

The varied blood and circulation's force, 

Among the lower radiates where teem, 

The strangest wonders — more like fancy's dream. 



THE LEARXED ■WORLD. 231 

In mollusk's higher laws their parts control ; 
In vertebrates, yet higher, rules the whole ; 
Here first we see the blood in arteries, veins, 
With valves supplied its columns safe sustains ; 
Here first we see the food by complex art. 
Changed to a fluid, borne to every part ; 
Here first we see one lung, then two observe, 
Which in the stead of stigmata may serve. 
And wavy Celia, that floats on th' tide, 
And these mean creatures with fresh air provide : 
How curious are the pouches which in birds, 
Extend from th' lungs and to the wings are urged ; 
More curious still, the tubes in insects seen. 
Which filled with water from hai'sh pressure screen ; 
More curious yet, the sacs and cells which drain, 
Of all its worth the blood hei-ein contain'd ; 



232 THE LEARNED WORLD. 

A common duct receives this precious charge, 
Which through an orifice is then discharged ; 
Hence flows the sweat, saliva, milk, and tear. 
And coarser matter through coarse glands appear ■ 
The former will secrete, the last excrete, 
Renewing life in all its forms complete ! 
Throughout the globe, peculiar to each zone. 
The Fauna see with Flora of its own ; 
Terrestrials with th' aquatics grouped inclined ; 
To changeless state, by Nature's hand defined ; 
Earth's varied features their conditions sway ; 
The deserts, seas oppose, the mountains stay ; 
Nor fish pass not from th' north to Afric's shore, 
Nor thro' the tropics Reindeers ne'er explore : 



THE LEARNED WORLD. 233 

Man, man alone, from clime to clime may roam, 

Alike contented wheresoe'er his home ! 

As pass we from the polai' snows along 

The Greenland coast, unxavymg fau7ia throng! 

The same as play about Siberia's shore, 

Where Norway sweeps and loud the Fingal's roar : 

Approach Newfoundland and the aspect now, 

Of bnates and landscape far more varied grow ; 

Forests succeed the naked turfy plains, 

And Nature joyous waves her golden grains : 

The fauna here the temperate zone may claim, 

A milder climate now assumes its reign ; 

New species meet the eye as southward bends. 

The step thro' 'Scotia and New England's glens ; 

Whilst those of colder regions pass away, 

As darkness flees before the orb of day ! 
20* 



234 THE LEARNED WORLD. 

The Antilles reached, the Oronoco's tide, — 
The gorgeous vision swells the heart with pride ! 
'Roi\i Jlora, fauna decked in gay attire, 
By their chaste beauty, love in man inspire ! 
As pass we on the scene less perfect grows, 
The temperate zone a lesser charm bestows : 
The sun's swift rays again oblique at noon, 
More marked the seasons and less mild the moon ; 
Palms yield to trees and animals are seen, 
But poorly nourished and of lesser sheen ; 
The picture is as that which first we saw, 
By Baffin's Bay, the coast of Labrador ; — 
Around both poles all Nature ever wears, 
The gloom of death — its sombre funereal airs ; 
Here creatures coarse and illy formed we see, 
The species few — their increase full and free : 



THE LEARNED WORLD. 235 

Here the aquatics we observe prevail, 
"Whilst milder climes terrestrial forms unvail ; 
Varied of color, graceful, quick of sense, 
"With lively step kind cheerfulness dispense ; 
The type both north and south is near allied — 
Immense tho' distance which these brutes divide : 
Neath genial skies, the &nest fauna play, 
To nurture man and grace the smiling day ; 
If bright the ^ora, so the /awwa are, — 
Thus Nature's laws sweet harmony declare. 

Now have I, sir, in brief to you discoursed. 
Of animals — their birth, their life, their course : 
The subject is replete with wondrous power, 
From complex man to simple dot and i3ower ; 



236 THE LEARNED WOKLD. 

The single view of e'en the classes rouse, 

The soul to awe — to Nature's cause espouse — 

"What then may be its pride when 'fore the eye, 

Each order, family, and genus lie ; 

And e'en the species shall be truly known. 

By force of genius worthy of renown ! 

May you contribute to perfect this work, 

Howe'er thy mind it strains, thy patience irk ; 

Do you earth's stratas pierce — those forms descry, 

"Which in its rocks may human search defy. 

Paleontology ! may it thy soul. 

Sternly engage to grasp the perfect whole ; 

So that no breathing form by law designed 

Since order came, may 'scape the active mind ! 

This do, this do, dear sir, and if I wed, 

You, you alone, shall share my downy bed. 



THE LEARNED WORLD. 237 

Truth kissed the maiden, on whose brow a tear, 
From his eye, trembling fell, both full and clear ; 
He drew her to his bosom and his head, 
There resting softly, thus to her he said : 
"Ah, maiden fair, no bed more pure than thine, 
None where my heart more gladly would recline ; 
And if to win so rich a prize I strive, 
From thee, as Nature, I shall sweets derive ; 
Then dear, with Truth to Knowledge, closely bound, 
"We '11 calmly gaze upon thought's depths profound ! 
Ah, won't we love ? yes, yes, thine eye hath spoke, 
"Where holy dreams the loveliest glance provoke." 
" Yes, yes, indeed we will ; we '11 happy be," 
Returned the lady, with a manner free ; 
'■'■ Truth bound to Knowledge is the only tie. 
That God will bless and which can never die ! " 



238 THE LEARNED WORLD. 

Now leave we them : Sir Truth, was pleased to hear, 
The full, sweet voice, in ringing notes so clear. 
Of one whom chance had thrown within his way. 
To nerve his breast, and learning's search repay ! 
Sound was his sleep that night and in the morn, 
As crew the cock, he stood upon the lawn. 
Ere yet the hostess from her bed arose. 
To greet Sir Truth, who 'd plucked for her a rose : 
He, wild with energy, ran up and down, 
The garden's walks by which the house was bound, 
'Till at the window Knowledge fair appears — 
Her night cap on, her eyes yet bathed in tears ; 
For she had dreamed her guest had gone away — 
Of her forgetful — with not e'en '' good day ! " 
She knew such was the world ; and so had dreamed ; 
The vision vivid, sad and solemn seemed ; 



THE LEARNED WORLD. 239 

But now as she beholds Sir Truth, her heart 

Casts off its sadness, for a happier part ; 

She calls to him aloud ; he looks and smiles, 

And she in turn exerts her winning wiles ; 

A moment chats, when each a tender kiss, 

Sends with the hand ; ah, perfect is their bliss ! 

Her toilet through, the breakfast then is served ; 

And now Sir Truth to take his hat 's observed ; 

Then kiss on kiss close follows to her lip, 

As stand they by each other, hip to hip : — 

" Ah, sorry, sorry am I, dearest sir, 

To part with one I 'bove all else prefer ! 

Yet must we part, for you must journey on, 

"Where thoughts are lovely and where fame is won ! ' 

" Yes, sweet one, yes ! Yet doth it madly tear, 

This beating bosom, thus to leave thee, fair j " 



240 THE LEARNED WORLD. 

Returned Sir Truth, as mildly bent his eye, 
On her for whom he gladly e'en would die ; 
" Ah, yes, pure being, now to part with thee, 
Thy converse sweet, thy maiden melody. 
Is sorrow's cup, yet must I dare to drink. 
Yet while life lasts, of you, o^ you, I '11 think ! 
So love, farewell ; and may kind angels guard, 
Thy pleasant solitude, thy love reward." 
With this he kissed again that noble brow, 
And walked away, as Knowledge smiling bows. 



GEOLOGY. 



Quickly he stepped along in rapture's glow, 

As more and more his earnest soul would know ; 

Anon, he came to where beside some stones, 

Is human form no more than skin and bones ; 

His eyes were sunk deep, deep within his skull, 

His nose was thin, his action tame and dull ; 

A pair of spectacles adorn his face, 

His feet were in a pair of brogans cased ; 

His shirt was soiled, his coat \he worse for wear; 

His whiskers motleyed, and uncombed his hair ; 

His fingers slim, his nails outgrown and coarse ; 

His gait was like to some down-broken horse ; 
21 



242 THE LEARNED WORLD. 

Sir Truth observing, said, " A scholar, sure, 

Geologist, perhaps, he earth digs o'er ; 

I 'U speak, and learn, perchance, his object here,' 

I '11 draw a little nearer, now, more near : " 

The shrivel'd object starts and somewhat shy, 

Retreats a step or twd, as Truth came nigh ; 

*' Be not alarmed, good sir," our hero said, 

" No price, I hope, is set upon thy head ; 

A wanderer I upon this earth to find 

The choicest treasures of the choicest mind ; 

You seem a student, one who me can teach : 

If so, I fain thro' thee, would learning reach ; 

Add to my gathered store, and I will prize 

Thy memory, deai-er than my heart or eyes ; 

Geologist, methinks, may be thy name, 

In Science, doubtless, seeketh deathless fame." 



THE LEARNED "WORLD. • 243 

Truth guessed aright, such was his favorite lore, 

To it he lived, for it was mean and poor. 

With squeaking voice, he raised his spare coarse head, 

And squinting somewhat, thus to Truth he said : 

*' I'm sick, sii", sick, and do not feel disposed, 

To perfect strangers, secrets fair disclose : 

These thirty years, have I the earth raked o'er, 

Within, without, nor rich have grown, but poor. 

If you have money and can pay me well, 

I '11 of my learning, thee a portion tell ; 

But else pass on, nor interrupt my mood. 

Such hours as these is sweetest solitude : " 

" A churl, I swear ! " low murmured Truth, and smiled, 

As tho' had spoke some froward saucy child : 

" Money, eh ! that 's what he wants I see, 

Of earth his lore, 't is not astronomy ! 



244 TETE LEARNED WORLD. 

Ah, well he shall be paid ; here, fellow, here, 
Ten silver dollars take, give that much cKeer ; 
Say, does your Science prove a God ? O, say ! 
And take this filthy lucre, quick away ; 
Advis'st its study ? Should I here behold 
Those charms entrancing to the fervid soul ? 
Speak, sir, I 'm eager for thy purchased word, 
For what I pay, will have, howe'er absurd." 
Geologist, as lawyer, took at once 
The proflfered change, and calmly muttered, dunce! 
He then explained the science lie pursued. 
Defined its laws, its early annals rude ; 
Of climate spake, the origin of man. 
Organic life discussed, its varied plan, 
The Deluge, aqueous forces, erratic blocks. 
The land's upheaval and volcanic shocks ; 



rnE LEARNED WORLD. 245 

The different texture of the varied rocks ; 

Of rivers, glaciers, icebergs, springs discoursed, — 

Explained the deltas and the tidal force ; 

Of igneous causes and volcanos prate, 

The earth's fluidity, its frequent quake ; 

Of animals and their dispersion speak, 

While faint and fainter grows his puny squeak ; 

To Zoophytes, fish, and insects, now refers, 

To man, his species, and his works recurs ; 

The coral reefs, organic peat, blown sand. 

The gradual wasting into sea of land. 

He whines, in pitying strain, " is all I know, 

Of God in earth, or look for here below." 

"Thy pay's well earned," Sir Truth, at once replied; 

" Thou hast thy contract filled, thy lore supplied ; 

Yet is thy science but a partial power. 



246 THE LEARNED AYORLD. 

And dull the mind, who wastes on it the hour ; 

In false conjecture, theory abound ! 

A grovelling study, cumbered with the ground." 

" By Heavens ! " the sage exclaimed, " thou wretched dunce, 

Begone ftom here, my presence leave at once ; 

Thou hast but heard ten dollars worth of me. 

When hundreds could not buy my lore for thee ! " 

His meatless bones in rattling discord move, 

His hollow eyes with passion wild obtrude ; 

His eel-like arm and tapering fingers twitch, 

And scratch his head, as tho' he had the itch ; 

" The earth, thou fool I " said he, " teems with the true, 

But seldom gives to such vain fops as you ; 

"With hair so choice, with skin so fair and clean, 

With accent soft, and knowledge passing mean ; 

Go ! go thy ways, and with fair ladies sly, 



THE LEARNED WORLD. 247 

Pat their round bosoms, there contented lie ; 

Look not to earth to make thee more a man ; 

Thy office be the dance and flirting fan ! 

Know that within Geology is found, 

No mincing saps, nor lazy worthless hound, 

But gold and silver, platinum and lead — 

The last soft metal mates thy pumpkin head ! 

Siberian mammoths in its strata lay, 

"Who 'd munch ten millions flies like thee per day ; " 

" Why, what a bore ! " Sir Truth, excited said, 

" I have a mind to bruise thy churlish head ; 

To teach thee manners, as thou me hast lore, 

And prove, I 'm rich, in that thou art so poor ; 

If studious habits bring our hearts to this. 

Be ignorance mine — its sweet and childish bliss ; 

I would not earth explore, e'en for a God ! 



248 THE LEARNED WORLD. 

If searching thus, I turned to such a plod ; 

A nasty, crabbed, and penurious wretch, 

"Whose withered heart, no hand of love could stretch ; *' 

He ceased, then turning to the scholar, said, 

" Thou gall-nut, would all like to thee were dead ; 

Disgusting objects, cumbei-ing o'er the ground. 

Most worthless fig-trees, hew, 0, hew them down I 

Learning, I prize, but when it taints the soul, 

I'd burn all books and trust to love, the world ! 

When of a man, it makes a withered trunk, 

And bathes him in the odors of the skunk, 

I 'd save his flesh, his eyes, affections true, 

To his fair brow, preserve a cheerful hue ; 

Nature her claims upon his body, mind, 

With accurate measure ever true should find! 

The balmy fluid's, and the solid's weight, 



THE LEARNED WOKLD. 249 

So nicely balanced, e'er should keep their state, 

No feeble stomach and no deadened brain. 

In early life, his finished course proclaim ; 

As man, he should endure with reason sound, 

Pay his just debts as in due honor bound; 

I 'd have him friendship's fond and perfect child, 

I 'd have him laugh in strains both long and wild ; 

' Laugh and grow fat,' on beef and mutton live, 

Nor think on air, with ruddy cheek, to thrive : 

Such training men of hardy mold would yield, 

To guard our households — grace the tented field I " ^ 

He paused ; then casting at the sage his eye, 

Pass'd on with easy steps, nor said " good by. " 

" Come back, good sir," the man of lore cried out, 

" You 've spoken well — your words are bold and stout." 

Sir Truth turned round, and smiling, stayed his step, 



250 THE LEARNED WORLD. 

Remarking that, " he could not but regret, 

To find in one so studious and so learned, 

A temper crabbed, and a spirit stern : " 

*' Forgive me, sir, " the man of lore spoke low, 

" The rain not always leaves a perfect bow ; 

So neither I am ever well in soul — 

And pray who is of perfect self-control. 

With wit enough, to earn a full command, 

And scatter good, or evil o'er the land? 

Not one, not one, so neither I pretend. 

Faultless to be, but err, and so amend." 

" Give me thy hand ! " Sir Truth respectful said, 

" Forgive my anger — deem it all as dead ; 

I can excuse in you these fits of spleen, 

Since, I do know how vexing 't is to glean. 

From learning's fields, its little grains of truth, 



THE LEARNED WORLD. 251 

To thoughtless minds, absurdity, forsooth ! " 

" Dost thou, indeed ? " rephed the man of lore, 

" "Would I had thought this much of thee before : 

I took thee for an upstart, vain and proud, 

Seeking to know as seek the flippant crowd ! 

With such I have few words, I pass them by, 

Nor pay much heed to all their questions ' why ; ' 

But now that I perceive thy spirit true, 

I '11 more of my fond science ope to you, 

Nor ask, nor take one penny for its worth. 

Thou shalt not think my lore is all of earth ; 

To Heaven it points, to God alone its praise, 

Its strains are Rapture's own, and peace, its ways ! 

From tivo greeh words, its name — the earth, discourse — 

From God and nature is derived its force ! 

Unerring chronicler of th' globe it tells, 



252 THE LEARNED WORLD. 

Of truths more sweet, than merry Christmas bells. 
How rolled our planet as a fiery ball, 
Ere to a spheroid hard, it now was called. 
By Hiin, who ruleth and made all things good, 
Cursed man with labor for his daily food. 
Frail is the crust which belts our little globe. 
One fifth of which alone makes man's abode ; 
While from two hundred cratas wildly pour, 
From out its bowels fierce, the liquid ore, 
Melted there by fires which never cease, 
But as the hells hereafter, *know no peace ;' 
It tells of Rocks — how formed, their classes name, 
How silex is near half of earth's domain. 
Whilst Lime and Iron th' other half maintain. 
It points to Rocks primeval — formed when cooled 
First our hot planet — God's footstool ! 



THE LEARNED WORLD. 253 

It tells how from these rocks by time assailed, 

The stratas grew and rocks o'er rocks prevailed, 

'Till in the course of ages came to be, 

The form Silurian — there the fossils see ! 

lu nine departments, this grand system lies, 

Which chalk and coal and metals all comprise, 

Capped by th' Diluvium, a rich minor soil, 

And the Alluvium, which repays man's toil, 

Who was not made till ages had prepared, 

All things for him — the last best work declared ! 

As have been formed, so rocks are forming still, 

Nature's true record of the Almighty's will ! 

Beneath the ocean where each year is borne, 

By rapid Rivera, matter of all form. 

Is written by the iron pen of time. 

Those facts of this our mighty age sublime, 
22 



254 THE LEAENED WORLD. 

Which when some cause shall the broad ocean bear, 

The eye of science will long linger there, 

And to its age proclaim what it may see, 

Of art and science — man's ability ! 

As formed the coal, so is it fomiing now, 

Ceaseless is action — to its power I bow ! 

Think how has come through gradual forms of life, 

The being man — so deadly in his strife, 

So gross in love — so vain in his desires, 

So cursed in pride — so feeble iu his fires. 

But for the Bible how could we behold, 

Worth in his heart, or God within his soul ! 

There, there alone I turn my face to find, 

The only light which lore and peace combine ! 

This is the book of books ! 't is sorrow's balm. 

The only guide which leads me to be calm, 



THE LEARNED WORLD. 255 

When stung by wrong, or hissed by folly's spite, — 
'T is then the day springs lovely from the night ! " 
" Bravo ! Oh, Bravo ! " shouted now Sir Truth, 
" These last sweet accents are of th' highest worth ; 
For I do think with thee, no word so true, 
As that revealed unto the pious Jew ; 
I think, I feel this was the favored race, 
The special objects of God's boundless grace : 
And Christ, oh, Christ, unto my heart I press, 
When thoughts are heavy, and my soul distressed. ** 
" We are, my friend, in this as one, " said lore, 
" I place no learning, no high art before 
That simple teacher who so lowly came. 
To speak to man in great Jehovah's name ! 
I know throughout all thought there is no word 
So dear to us as that from Jesus heard — 



256 THE LEARNED WORLD. 

' I am the resurrection and the life, 
He that believes on me, though he were dead, 
Yet shall he live ! ' Oh, these are words of power, 
No art can counterfeit, no science lower. 
They tell us that which we delight to know, 
From which fair source our truest pleasures flow ; 
For if our life ran not beyond the grave, 
What drudgery to learn — what else but slave. " 
" Ah, yes, " replied Sir Truth " we both agree. 
And I most happy shall be thee to see. 
Within my home whenever thou mayest call — 
1 '11 serve thee well, with e'en my substance all ; 
So take my hand, and with a sweet farewell, 
let us part in friendship's kindliest spell;" 
" yes, Sir Truth, " rejoined the man of lore, 
" I take thy hand and think of strife no more ; 



# 

THE LEARNED WORLD. 257 

If words ungentle have between us past, 

Let 's hope in Heaven thej may be the last ! 

Since hearts and minds united in desire, 

To learn of nature and her laws entire. 

Should in the study of the master mind, 

To each be generous, forgiving, kind ! 

For He, our Father, and our best of friends, 

In all his works a perfect concord blends, 

Save m,an, who formed to do his own free will, 

Opposes Nature, and loud wrangles still. " 

" Yes, yes, " returned Sir Truth, " we do amiss, 

And virtue meet, as Judas, Christ with kiss. 

But in the vision of St. John is writ, 

A better will of man to move him yet ; 

Ah, when that hour shall come, then here on earth 

Shall human nature have its second birth, 



ft 

258 THE LEARNED WORLD. 

And Heaven's pure influence shall all hearts direct, 

And hatreds pass away with bigot sects ! 

Thus parting with thee, sir, this hope sustains — 

Strife will e'er be, while vicious will remains. " 

Sir Truth shook heartily the hand of lore, 

And in few words he said, he would withdraw, 

And forward go through Learning's golden ways, 

To light his heart and beautify his days ; 

And so they parted good and faithful friends — 

May quarrels all, have equal happy ends. 



APPENDIX. 



NOTE I. 



The ethical, says Byron, is the highest of all poetry ! because it 
does that ia verse which the greatest of men have wished to ac- 
complish in prase. If the essence of poetry must be a lie ! throw it 
to the dogs ! or banish it from your Republic, as Plato would have 
done. He who can reconcile poetry with truth and wisdom, is the 
only true poet ! in its real sense the " maker " the " creator " — 
why must this mean "the liar" — the "feigner" — the "tale 
teller 1" 

NOTE II. 

If there should be any one disposed to find fault with our rhyme 
or rhythm, we would refer them to the following famed authors. 
We think, whatever licenses we may have taken, do not exceed 
these. 

" Your prudent, grand-mammas, ye modem belles, 
Content with Bristol Bath, and Tunbridge wells, 
When health required it, would consent to roam. 
Else more attached to pleasures found at home ; 
But now alike gay widow, virgin wife, 
Ingenious to 'liversify dull life, 



260 APPENDIX. 

In coaches, chaises, caravans and hoys, 
Fly to the coast for daily, nightly joys, 
And all impatient of di-y land agree, 
With one consent, to rush into the sea. 
Ocean exhibits, fjithomless and broad, 
Much -of the power and majesty of God." 

And again : 

" Anticipated rents and bills unpaid. 
Force many a shining youth into the shade. 
Not to redeem his time but his estate, 
And play the fool but at a cheaper rate. 
There, hid in loathed obscurity, removed 
From pleasures lost, but never more beloved 
He just endures and with a sickly spleen. 
Sighs o'er the beauties of the charming scene, 
He likes the country, but in truth must own, 
Most likes it when he studies it in town." 

And again : 

" Poor Jack — no matter who — for when I blame, 
I pity, and must therefore sink the name. 
Lived in his saddle, loved the chase, the course, 
And always ere he mounted, kissed his horse. 
The estate, his sires had owned in ancient years, 
Was quickly distanced, matched against a peers, 
Jack vanishes, was regretted, and forgot, — 
'T is wild good nature's never failing lot. 
At length, when all had long supposed him dead. 
By cold submission, razor, rope, or lead. 



APPENDIX. 



261 



My lord alighted at his usual place, 

The crown, took notice of an ostler's face," 

and so on for many verses, which we will not quote. Certainly 
if Cowper may be excused for thus using heroic measure for com- 
mon place ideas, we who have " no genius " as we have been in- 
formed by some critics, may well be pardoned for our presumption. 
Cowper rhymes thus in one of his best works, — Retirement. 



Inh 



his skill displayed, 

has made, 
within the breast, 
not suppressed, 
have passed, 
together last, 
silent tongue, 
join the song, 
and broad, 
of God. 

busy road, 
had bestowed. 



" Charity and Conversation," — 

prismatic hues, 
. erudition use. 

credulous enough, 
. weaker proof, 
body knows, 
to a close. 



2G2 APPENDIX. 

This is one of England's most honored poets ; Now for Pope ! 

breath of vice, 

it shines destroys. 

Many other instances there are, in which Pope is not much more 
particular than this. Now for Dryden ! 

to my wish, 

to the bliss. 

outward form, 

itself in man. 

OldJ^am ! 

such as /, 

loving she. 

of that tree, 

cupid by. 

Addison. 

another views, 

. . . into boughs. 

Sternhold and Hopkins — 

And how he did commit their fruits, 

Unto the Caterpillar, 
And eke the labor of their hands. 

He gave to the Grasshopper, 

Horace — 

Yet ne'er returns the vital heat, 
The shadowy form to animate. 



APPENDIX. 2G3 

Then let us not of fate complain, 

For soon shall change the gloomy scene. 

How shall from the passing stream, 
Quench our wine's Falerniany?a?«e 'i 

Furious in war the Thracian prays, 
The quivered Mede, for ease, for ease. 

His gentle sleep nor anxious fear, 
Shall drive away, nor sordid care. 

Tom Campbell. 

While, long neglected, but at length caressed ; 
His faithful dog salutes the smiling guest. 

— Pleasures of Hope. 

Again to the battle, Achaians ! 

Our hearts bid the tyrants defiance ! — Song of the Greeks. 

So falls the heart at Thraldom's bitter Sigh ! 

So virtue dies, the spouse of liberty ! — Pleasures of Hope. 

Eaged o'er your plundered shrines and altars hare, 
With blazing torch and gory cimeter. — Ibid. 



" The Doctor spoke, and as the patient heard, 
His old disorders, (dreadful train !) appear'd." 

— The Gentleman Farmer. 



264 APPENDIX. 

We are quite willing to be judged by Crahhe, whose vei-se if not 
poetry, in the sense of that idea, as expounded by Shakspeare, 
Spencer, and Milton, is nevertheless, the best of common sense, 
both instructive and amusing. 

All these authors rank as poets, and their genius is generally 
admitted. 

Says Southey, in his Introduction essay on the lives and works 
of uneducated poets — " When it is laid down as a maxim of phil- 
osophical criticism, that poetry ought never to be encouraged, un- 
less it is excellent in its kind — that it is an art in which inferior 
execution is not to be tolerated — a luxury and must therefore be 
rejected unless it is of the very best — such reasoning may be ad- 
dressed with success to cockered and sickly intellects, but it will 
never impose upon a healthy understanding, a generous spirit, or 
a good heart. 

NOTE III. 

In our ti'eatment of Theology we have not been as reverential 
towards its dogmas as the Clergy would have us, and for the 
reason, that we find in this department of knowledge but little 
commanding our respect. The controversies on the Bible for the 
most part, are infamous, and the manner in which its texts have 
been abused for party ends is an abomination, which the more 
one contemplates in a dispassionate and unprejudiced spirit, the 
more contemptible do the schools appear. 

The great leading ideas of the Bible— the NewTestament at least, 
are faith, hope, and charity, and no man (we care not what his 
book learning;) can make them anything else. It matters not. 



APPENDIX. 265 

whether Jesus came to the world as very God of very God, (a sec- 
ond and separate, and distinct person in the Trinity) so that we ac- 
cept the principles He promulgated, and live by them, we do the will 
of God, and are one with Christ and Him ; and this is the whole 
of it, nothing more nor less ; and if there should ever be less 
preaching and more doing of the word, there would be a better 
social, civil, and political condition of our most unhappy race. 
But the truth is, the pulpit, so far from being devoted to true 
Christianity, is appropriated to the display of scholastic tom- 
foolery ; and these niceties of teaching, which cuts up the true 
sense and spirit of Holy "Writ into all the refinements of common 
law cases — the distinctions in which are so thin, that none but 
brains especially trained to believe their realities, can ever compre- 
hend the reasoning upon which these refinements of logic rest. 

Learning is a vic^ when it thus trifles with the word of God ; 
this word has but one meaning and one power to those who study 
it meekly and fairly, and that meaning and that power is — he true 
to your fellow man! revere God, and cherish the life of Christ as 
the life of God — as much His life as can be personified through 
the human form. 

At all events, Religion does not consist in disputations. It is 
the spirit of harmony and peace and confidence ; and how much 
of this results either from the example or the teachings of the 
ministry ? We are not disposed to be captious, but we do say 
that the clergy of our times for the most part fivil from some 
cause or other to affect the community as they ought to be 
touched, by the noble truths of the Gospel ; and that persons re- 
ceive, more frequently than otherwise, their convictions of these 
truths through mediation self-directed, and personal experiences, 
rather than from the labors of the ministry. 



266 APPENDIX. 

Within our own Puritan City of Boston, we see clergymen 
ardently engaged in politics, as though politics directly has any 
connection with the mission of Christ. Where do we find — until 
after the corruption of Christianity — any servant of @od acting 
in the capacity of politicians ? lu no instance do we find them 
so employed ; and it is to this, its pure character, that it is 
indebted for its rapid growth during the first three centuries. 
Had the ministry then meddled with politics as they now do, 
they would have strangled Christianity at its birth ; and wo 
should, in this 19th century, be without any other religion than 
the philosophy of Plato and Aristotle and Socrates, and the 
lights of science as given to the world by Tycho Brahe, Kepler, 
Galileo, Newton and Laplace. And much better would this be 
for mankind than to have saddled on to society a class of men 
who term themselves " the servants of God," when their acts 
demonstrate them to be — to a mathematical certainty — His 
enemies. 

To support this class of men is a great tax upon the social and 
civil purse ; and what do they give us in return ? Nothihg worth 
having ! Politics, science, art, and religious dogmas, instead of 
the simple, unadulterated Life of Christ. ^ 

The ministry are so hir/lt{y educated that they weary of teach- 
ing the simple truths of Charity, and must branch out into the 
varied fields where the world seem most delighted to be. Let 
them stand to their post so long as they can get a crust of bread 
and a drink of water, and they will find that their devotion to 
God will inspire a faith in others ; and that the churches will be 
again well attended to hear the Bil)le taught, and nothing else. 

But no ! the clergy must live well, and, therefore, they must 



APPENDIX. 267 

toady to the irreligious fancies of the laity ; they must please their 
masters — they mast turn their pulpits into sensation rostrums> 
where all the exciting topics of the day in art, science, and 
politics, may be discoursed of. Shame upon such poltroonery, 
such a reverence for man — such a denial, forgetfulness of God ! 
It is, indeed, a sad comment upon human nature ; and well may 
we ask if there can be any salvation for such unpardonable dere- 
liction on the part of those who claim to be the ministry of 
Christ. 

NOTE IV. 

Nature and God and Jesus Christ shall be 
Thy cherished faith, Thy Holy Trinity ! 

There are, therefore, two principal services besides ornament 
and illustration, which philosophy and human learning perform' 
to faith and religion — the one effectually exciting to the exalta- 
tion of God's glory, and the other affording a singular preserva- 
tive against unbelief and error. Our Saviour says : "Ye err, not 
knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God," thus laying, 
before us two books to study, if we will be secured from error — 
viz. : the Scriptures, which reveal the word of God, and the- 
creation which expresses his power ! — The latter whereof is a key 
to the former, and not only opens our understanding to conceive 
the true sense of the Scripture by the general notions of reason, 
and the rules of speech, but chiefly opens our faith in drawing us- 
to a due consideration of the omnipotence of God, which is 
stamped upon His works. 

We have introduced in this section on Theology a spirit from' 
our future home beyond the grave, and the query may arise with 



268 APPENDIX. 

eome if we are a spiritualist, and endorse this (so-called) doctrine ? 
We reply that we endorse nothing of this nature whatever ! We 
believe that it is possible for pure spirit to influence some pecu- 
liarly organized brain, and we have no hesitation in saying that 
we incline to the opinion that all genius, of whatever cast, is so 
ordered. So far as our own personal experience goes, we may 
say that no one can have satisfactory evidence of this connection 
of the seen and the unseen, only as it comes to them through their 
internal senses, acted upon by vivid consciousness that can never 
be another's. 

To a mind of enlarged powers, there is invariably a history 
that cannot be explained upon any principle whatever, save that 
of spiritualism ; and though they may be convinced themselves of 
the implication in their mental processes of this agency, they can- 
not impress another mind, which has never had the same expe- 
rience, with the force of the evidence as they, in their own con- 
sciousness, have received it. How is it likely that the immense 
literary labors which have given the current to human thought 
could have been successfully consummated without spirit power, 
not alone peculiar to the writers, or those in the body associated 
with them? But whilst we are gratified to say this much in 
defense of a beautiful doctrine — upon which all that is valuable 
in Church history is based — we would condemn in unqualified 
terms those vile imposters who have seized hold of this idea, and 
•with it so fearfully have debauched the public mind, inducing 
persons to accept the mere operation of their misunderstood 
imaginations, as communications from guardian spirits. The 
whole subject is one of fearful responsibility ; and those only 
should attempt its explanation who are qualified by nature and 



APPENDIX. 269 

education to direct their fellow beings. "We say " explana. 
tion" since it can only be explained — if explained at all — by 
those who have had the opportunity of knowing it thoroughly* 
It is the peculiar province of the ministry to deal with it, and to 
them it should be referred. 



NOTE V. 

' At the time this gentleman was in the China Sea, in company 
with the American Legation to China, of which the Hon. Caleb 
Gushing was the head, we happened to be in Manilla, where we 
had the pleasure of an introduction to Mr. Kane — whom we lit- 
tle thought at that time, ambitious and adventurous though we 
knew him to be, would attempt a West passage by the North Pole. 
Indeed, he appeared to us at the time to be too fragile of mold 
to undergo the hardships of the polar regions ; and his death sub- 
sequent to his adventure coniirms the correctness of that opinion 
of his strength. He was, indeed, a heroic soul, and met the fate 
of nearly all aspiring genius — he died, as the gods would have 
him in their love, young. The paths of glory led but to the 
grave. 

NOTE VI. 

We by no means wish to be understood in our allusion to the 
military, as having any especial admiration for that miscalled art. 
The butchering of human beings, necessary though it sometimes 
may be, should be termed a Science and not an Art — for Art 
is a term better applied to operations of the mind, which 



270 APPENDIX. 

have not for their object the destruction of our fellow-men. We 
admit thp necessity in every country of an armed force to preserve 
the peace ; and we honor those who for this virtuous intent beax 
arms. But on the other hand, there are a set of inhuman, blood- 
thirsty scoundrels, who pervert this true spirit of chivalry into an 
aggressive ambition ; and seize upon every pretext for a war, 
and the slaughter of their fellows. This is the abuse of arms, 
and we know how much society has suffered in all ages from 
the false and diabolical spirit of the soldier ! 




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